Friday, December 12, 2008
Interior Racket
As Tom Goldtooth remarked in an August 2007 address, the federal racketeering taking place within the U.S. Department of the Interior needs to come to an end. Collusion between Interior and oil and gas companies to steal resources from federal lands, exposed in federal court by Cobell v Kempthorne, is an entrenched criminal enterprise that deprives millions of Americans of their basic needs.
While Cobell focused on the royalties stolen from Indian Trust beneficiaries, the royalties stolen from the US Treasury by Interior Secretaries, like Gale Norton and James Watt, could have been used for such things as health and education for all Americans.
While Pentagon profiteering rightly makes headline news now and then, the 24/7 larceny taking place at Interior -- right under the nose of Congress -- is a scandal so colossal that no politician will even mention it. Next time you wonder why Americans don't have free college and health care like Norway, or free phone and electricity like Bolivia -- all paid for by those countries' oil and gas royalties -- you'll know it's because American lawmakers are just too corrupt.
While Cobell focused on the royalties stolen from Indian Trust beneficiaries, the royalties stolen from the US Treasury by Interior Secretaries, like Gale Norton and James Watt, could have been used for such things as health and education for all Americans.
While Pentagon profiteering rightly makes headline news now and then, the 24/7 larceny taking place at Interior -- right under the nose of Congress -- is a scandal so colossal that no politician will even mention it. Next time you wonder why Americans don't have free college and health care like Norway, or free phone and electricity like Bolivia -- all paid for by those countries' oil and gas royalties -- you'll know it's because American lawmakers are just too corrupt.
