Rich Hunter
Cherry Hill, New Jersey
News flash: Dick Cheney is Joe McCarthy: Has anyone in the press or the major networks taken a good look at George Bush Sr.'s relationship with the Carlyle Group and his relationship with the Saudi royal family, which was implicated in the funding of several 9/11 hijackers? The president's father does business with the Carlyle Group, which is being investigated in relation to the terrorist attacks.
The CIA armed Saddam Hussein when he was doing battle with the Iranians. That is where those weapons of mass destruction came from.
Anyone remember James Baker, secretary of state for George the First and "honest broker" of the Florida election debacle in 2000? Frank Carlucci from the Defense Department? Richard Darman, economic adviser? All have been doing work for the Carlyle Group in the Middle East along with George Sr.
In 1998, prior to becoming COO of the United States, Dick Cheney of Halliburton Corp. spoke of the possibility of some 200 billion barrels of oil and $4 trillion profits from the region. Halliburton has a 12-year contract with Azerbaijan for offshore construction in the Caspian Sea region. Find it on the map.
By the way, isn't the private engineering and consulting firm that is costing out the conflict in Iraq Brown and Root? Aren't they the same folks that got a contract in the Balkans after the conflict there to develop a pipeline for oil from the Caspian Sea to Europe? And isn't Brown and Root a subsidiary of Halliburton?
Cheney was secretary of defense from 1988 to 1992, during the first Iraq War under Papa Bush. He was CEO of Halliburton from 1992 until 2000 and part of the strategic planning team to liberate Central Asia and Iraq.
The potential for destruction and turmoil? Huge. By the way, was Cheney in any way associated with Unocal's 1997 offer to the Taliban/al Qaeda/bin Laden of 15 cents per 1,000 cubic feet of natural gas traveling through a pipeline from Uzbekistan to the Persian Gulf through Afghanistan?
Do you think that when the Taliban became a liability after the embassy bombings in Kenya, Dick was part of the planning group that gave $43 million to the Taliban and al Qaeda to destroy the opium crop in Afghanistan? Is that what finally soured Pakistan to the Taliban and made it easy prey for the post 9/11 U.S. incursion? Is it a stretch to ponder that the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center was bin Laden's response to being set up?
R.C.
Plantation
He told 'em so: I am writing to commend Bob Norman on his March 13 article about Pompano Beach water ("Don't Drink the Water").
During my tenure as mayor of the City of Lighthouse Point, I vetoed a new 40-year franchise agreement with Pompano because of my concern over some of the problems detailed in Norman's article. However, Fred Schorr, a commissioner at the time and now mayor of Lighthouse Point, convinced a majority of the commission to override my veto. As a result, Pompano now has an exclusive franchise to supply the southern portion of Lighthouse Point with water from the new plant. Maybe after reading your article, residents will realize that the cheapest water is not always the best-quality water and that they've been had -- for the next 40 years!
Dan Oates
Lighthouse Point
He's shaking his head: After reading Bob Norman's well-written story on the Pompano water supply, I shook my head in disbelief. What in hell is going on at that water department, and why aren't city, county, and state authorities doing anything about those bastards who are threatening the health of all of us?
John Perry
via the Internet
Spoil the developers: Thanks to Chuck Strouse for his March 6 column, "Steal from the Kiddies, Spoil the Rich," which exposed events in Hollywood that are somehow dismissed by the Herald and Sun-Sentinel, who put leashes on their reporters and transfer them when they show signs of introspective reporting. The newspapers apparently fear losing advertising controlled by Mayor Mara-Czar, the Empress of Hollywood, who has assumed the position of wheeler-dealer with our city funds.
The Steven Berman deal for La Piazza II on Young Circle mentioned by Strouse is typical. With people flocking east from overdeveloped western suburbs, why does the mayor find it necessary to dole out extremely limited city revenue and valuable city assets as "incentives" to this developer without even considering other proposals? Avoidance of competition always smells of corruption and backdoor deals.
Three million dollars of incentives that may climb much higher after the city buys additional property from unwilling owners will be turned over to Berman for ONE DOLLAR.
Recently, when Berman appeared at a Lakes' Civic Association meeting, it was suggested that the people of Hollywood were his partners in this deal and that he provide the estimated profit on this project to us, his partners. He declined and asked, "How would you like to stand up here and take the risk with me?"
One must question whether this style of city business is nothing more than a money-laundering system in which the philanthropic squanderers are beneficiaries of the excessive doling of public funds. Could this be the reason Hollywood is $4 million in debt and seeking to persuade voters to pass an $81 million bond for more "special" projects?
To avoid a sour-grapes label, it must be said the Berman project seems to be an appropriate, noncontroversial approach by the developer for this location,particularly in light of the 23-story albatross proposed for the Great Southern site also on the Circle. It is not the project that is a problem; it's the deal.
Howard Sher
Hollywood
Naah, that's too good for 'im: From this long-time beachfront resident's point of view, lame-duck City Commissioner Tim Smith deserves only a Greyhound Bus schedule. I certainly hope that taxpayer money isn't spent giving him awards or honors for his disservice to Fort Lauderdale, as described in Edmund Newton's "Grumbling from the Grassroots" (February 20). Smith has screwed up (or ignored) virtually everything -- be it major or mundane -- on the beach.
Smith has made 20 major snafus. Here are just a few of them:
1. He has destroyed and/or is willing to destroy the view from A1A of the beach near Birch State Park and the ocean while limiting public access to nearly one half of the beach.
2. He has built a North Beach Recreation Center -- with little to nothing for kids -- that still has little to nothing other than some card tables, one pool table, and some old computers in it. The place has about 40 parking spaces for the 30,000-plus residents who live within three miles of it. And it can't be expanded.
3. He has failed during his six years to station lifeguards north of the Birch State Park Tunnel, while three people drowned near NE 18th Street in one month during his tenure.
Thanks to Smith, as well as Commissioners Gloria Katz and Carlton Moore, Fort Lauderdale's beach is well on its way to becoming another Hallandale. Smith has been a developer's tool/stooge/puppet. He doesn't know the difference between construction and destruction. His horrible legacy will be the dozens of monstrous buildings that are totally out of character with the neighborhoods -- we racked it, stacked it, and packed it, and the public interest has been damned. Tough crap if you don't like the size of the Jackson Towers or Riverside Hotel or the size of the Waverly Apartments at East Broward Boulevard and Federal Highway -- it was about the money.
Art Seitz
Fort Lauderdale
