Post by bot on Apr 8, 2004 2:07:51 GMT -5
From: Gandalf Grey (gandalfgrey@infectedmail.com)
Subject: Investigator Resigns Citing Bush Regime Obstruction of Investigation
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Newsgroups: alt.current-events.clinton.whitewater, alt.current-events.wtc.bush-knew, alt.impeach.bush, alt.politics, alt.politics.bush, alt.politics.liberalism, alt.society.liberalism, talk.politics.misc
Date: 2004-04-07 11:50:52 PST
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55870-2004Apr6.html
Interior Dept. Is Denounced
Investigator of Indian Funds Resigns, Alleges Obstruction
By Carol D. Leonnig
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, April 7, 2004; Page A07
A court-appointed investigator has resigned from his job probing the federal
government's management of hundreds of millions of dollars owed Native
Americans, and charged that the Department of the Interior blocked his work
in a bid to conceal its deals to enrich energy companies and cheat American
Indians.
In his resignation letter, made public yesterday, Special Master Alan L.
Balaran said the Bush administration worked to thwart him beginning last
summer after he uncovered a two-decades-old practice by Interior officials
of negotiating leases with oil and gas companies that gave Indian landowners
a small fraction of the royalties that private landowners received in
similar deals. Balaran accused the Department of Justice and the Interior
Department of trying repeatedly to have him removed from the case "to
prevent any further investigation" of the lopsided deals.
"A full investigation into these matters might well result in energy
companies being forced to repay significant sums to individual Indians,"
Balaran wrote to the judge overseeing a multibillion-dollar lawsuit by
Native Americans against the Interior Department. "Interior could not let
this happen. . . . Billions of dollars are at stake."
Interior officials released a statement yesterday calling Balaran's charges
"preposterous" and "based entirely on innuendo, supposition and baseless
speculation -- just the sorts of things to which a competent judicial
officer would give no credence."
Justice Department officials declined to comment.
In August 2003, Balaran reported that the Interior Department's chief
appraiser in New Mexico had repeatedly negotiated for energy companies to
pay Indians less than market value for the use of their land and that he
destroyed evidence of his longstanding practice. In the case of one San Juan
basin pipeline, the appraiser arranged for a gas company to pay $4.50 a yard
to run pipeline across Indian-owned lands that Interior managed, while the
same energy company paid private landowners $104 a yard for running the same
pipe on their adjoining land.
Soon after his report, Balaran said Justice Department officials ordered him
to leave an Interior Department repository in Dallas where he planned to
review gas and oil audit files.
"The reason for this dramatic shift in policy is obvious," Balaran wrote of
the government's action. "The consequences of [my] findings could cost the
very companies with which senior Interior officials maintain close ties
millions of dollars."
Balaran noted that the agency's inspector general concluded last month that
Deputy Interior Secretary J. Steven Griles had repeated dealings with energy
and mining industry clients of his former lobbying firm after assuming his
post. As a condition of his confirmation for the deputy job, Griles had
agreed to avoid such dealings for as many as six years.
Balaran praised U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth, who is overseeing the
Indian trust case, as "courageous." Lamberth said in a court order yesterday
that he accepted Balaran's resignation "with profound regret."
© 2004 The Washington Post Company
Subject: Investigator Resigns Citing Bush Regime Obstruction of Investigation
This is the only article in this thread
View: Original Format
Newsgroups: alt.current-events.clinton.whitewater, alt.current-events.wtc.bush-knew, alt.impeach.bush, alt.politics, alt.politics.bush, alt.politics.liberalism, alt.society.liberalism, talk.politics.misc
Date: 2004-04-07 11:50:52 PST
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55870-2004Apr6.html
Interior Dept. Is Denounced
Investigator of Indian Funds Resigns, Alleges Obstruction
By Carol D. Leonnig
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, April 7, 2004; Page A07
A court-appointed investigator has resigned from his job probing the federal
government's management of hundreds of millions of dollars owed Native
Americans, and charged that the Department of the Interior blocked his work
in a bid to conceal its deals to enrich energy companies and cheat American
Indians.
In his resignation letter, made public yesterday, Special Master Alan L.
Balaran said the Bush administration worked to thwart him beginning last
summer after he uncovered a two-decades-old practice by Interior officials
of negotiating leases with oil and gas companies that gave Indian landowners
a small fraction of the royalties that private landowners received in
similar deals. Balaran accused the Department of Justice and the Interior
Department of trying repeatedly to have him removed from the case "to
prevent any further investigation" of the lopsided deals.
"A full investigation into these matters might well result in energy
companies being forced to repay significant sums to individual Indians,"
Balaran wrote to the judge overseeing a multibillion-dollar lawsuit by
Native Americans against the Interior Department. "Interior could not let
this happen. . . . Billions of dollars are at stake."
Interior officials released a statement yesterday calling Balaran's charges
"preposterous" and "based entirely on innuendo, supposition and baseless
speculation -- just the sorts of things to which a competent judicial
officer would give no credence."
Justice Department officials declined to comment.
In August 2003, Balaran reported that the Interior Department's chief
appraiser in New Mexico had repeatedly negotiated for energy companies to
pay Indians less than market value for the use of their land and that he
destroyed evidence of his longstanding practice. In the case of one San Juan
basin pipeline, the appraiser arranged for a gas company to pay $4.50 a yard
to run pipeline across Indian-owned lands that Interior managed, while the
same energy company paid private landowners $104 a yard for running the same
pipe on their adjoining land.
Soon after his report, Balaran said Justice Department officials ordered him
to leave an Interior Department repository in Dallas where he planned to
review gas and oil audit files.
"The reason for this dramatic shift in policy is obvious," Balaran wrote of
the government's action. "The consequences of [my] findings could cost the
very companies with which senior Interior officials maintain close ties
millions of dollars."
Balaran noted that the agency's inspector general concluded last month that
Deputy Interior Secretary J. Steven Griles had repeated dealings with energy
and mining industry clients of his former lobbying firm after assuming his
post. As a condition of his confirmation for the deputy job, Griles had
agreed to avoid such dealings for as many as six years.
Balaran praised U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth, who is overseeing the
Indian trust case, as "courageous." Lamberth said in a court order yesterday
that he accepted Balaran's resignation "with profound regret."
© 2004 The Washington Post Company