NP? W.'s First Enron Connection: Update on the Bush-Enron Oil Deal

[Doug Millison]

http://www.thenation.com/capitalgames/index.mhtml?bid=3&pid=21

"[...] To spell it out: George W. Bush and Enron Oil and Gas were in
business together in 1986--when Ken Lay was head of Enron. (Lay was named
Enron chairman in February of that year.) [...] On March 6, two days after
this story was first posted, "The New York Times" ran on the front page of
its business section a story headlined, "Bush Joined Unit of Enron In '86
Venture To Seek Oil." The article, written by Jim Yardley, essentially
reported the facts noted above. Halfway into the piece, it noted, "A
columnist in The Nation, the liberal political journal,...wrote about the
deal this week in its online edition." [...] On another, more important,
Enron-Bush point: Way back in 1994, I reported that Rodolfo Terragno, a
former Argentine cabinet minister, had claimed that when he headed the
Public Works and Services Department in 1988, George W. Bush, whom Terragno
did not know, called him and pressured Terragno to award a pipeline
contract worth hundreds of millions of dollars to Enron. (See
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020204&s=corn.) Terragno, who said
he resisted this and subsequent importuning, could not provide proof that
the call had occurred. (How can you prove you were phoned by the son of the
Vice-President?) Bush's aides denied Terragno's account. But it's worth
taking a second look at those denials.

At the time I was pursuing the Terragno story, Bush was running for Texas
governor, and I asked the campaign whether Bush had spoken to Terragno
about the pipeline project and whether he had any business relationship
with Enron. Bush aide Karen Hughes faxed me a terse statement: "The answer
to your questions are no and none. Your questions are apparently addressed
to the wrong person." An Enron spokesperson said, "Enron has not had any
business dealings with George W. Bush, and we don't have any knowledge that
he was involved in a pipeline project in Argentina."

The recent news about the 1986 Enron-Bush venture in the Belspec Fusselman
Field undermines (to be polite about it) those 1994 statements from Bush
and Enron denying any business relationship between the scion and the
company. The existence of this oil partnership in 1986 (or one in 1985) has
no bearing on the veracity of Terragno's tale. But it shows the credibility
of the Bush gang and that of Enron deserve questioning when either one is
talking about the other. "