European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - August 16, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 Dorii Itsos the stars and stripes thursday August 16,1990 a to vie in Willi am Safir Barry Case Points to need for even an american jury sent a Stern message to the attorney general 1 he other Day the government of the United states should never stoop to acting like a Pimp. By threatening to prosecute a former Girlfriend of Marion Barry our Justice department coerced her Inlet serving As a sexual lure. The government then transported her across the country at taxpayer expense and had her Telephone the target to initiate a meeting at her hotel. When he suggested the lobby the voluptuous agent of the attorney general lured the target up to her room which was rigged with hidden cameras. After denying him the sex he expected the government was not even an honest Pimp our a trapper coaxed him into using crack cocaine. Other agents then burst in and arrested him for committing the crime to which the attorney general himself was accessory. In a departure from american values the supreme court has held that arranging such an entrapment with a suspect who can be shown to be Quot predisposed to commit the crime May be permissible. Moreover our attorney general insists he had nothing to do with the decision to employ a sex lure to induce the target into performing a criminal act on television. But when i asked him two months ago if the decision to set up the mayor had come to him for review the nations chief Law officer grudgingly admitted that he a knew about it beforehand a As if not giving a direct order o do the dirty business absolved him of responsibility. 1 Quot a this Low Point in Federal Law enforcement cannot he attributed to the popinjays prosecutor in charge of the do Case by refusing to say a we done to stoop this Low a the attorney general gave the Bush administrations approval to a precedent in electronic Keyhole peeking that Shames the Law. Thank god for juries. A sufficient number of jurors found this trick repugnant enough to torpedo the Case. It convicted Barry of one Misdemeanour count of drug use acquitted him of another but refused to convict on the felony accusations. In effect the jury said a we know he a a drug user to i but we won t stand for the Way the government went the embarrassed prosecution explains we had to get this Man. He was the drug Ridden mayor of a drug Ridden City. Because we could not allow a Junkie to occupy a High place we spent millions and stretched privacy standards to gel him provided he a not a political buddy. Readers William f. Buckley recall a charge in this space two months ago of a double Standard in the investigation of officials suspected of drug use. Henry Barr was for 20 years Dick Thornburgh a right hand Man. He came to Washington with his Boss and soon was the assistant overseeing criminal matters with the highest Security clearance. Last year he quit suddenly a a As Neil Lewis of the new York times discovered Only two Days after a longtime associate in Pennsylvania was. Named As target in a drug investigation. Did Thornburgh authorize Sleazy sex lures and costly sting operations to trap his aide who was privy to the most secret drug busts no. Did he recognize the conflict of interest and turn the matter Over to Independent counsel no. The attorney general and an array of lop aides at Justice recused themselves. Thornburgh was deliberately so out of it that a until he heard it in a question from me a he did not know that even the head of his criminal division had ducked out of the Case. He resisted Calls for a special prosecutor. Finally 16 months after Barr quit. Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania a who knows something about Harrisburg polities and the Laws delays a called for an Independent counsel. So defendant s lawyer now worried about catch up Zeal. Judiciary committee members swing More weight at Justice than columnists. Thus prodded Only 11 Days later a grand jury indicted Henry Barr for cocaine use. It was the same Day that a Petit jury gave Marion Barry his Victory Over sle zealotry. What a the Point of this juxtaposition not race. No plot exists to get Black officials and let Whites go. Nor May we compare barrys admitted guilt to Barros protested innocence. When evidence Points at High level officials a single Standard should apply if the suspect is a political opponent the attorney general should authorize a respectable level of investigative Diligence. And if the suspect is a buddy he should speedily assign Independent counsel. A now York time main trouble with capitalism is capitalists i wish there were an insurance policy one Coull take out in defense of capitalism. 1 could imagine that the premiums would have been oversubscribed to an Adam Smith fund to retire Frank Lorenzo. Or to a Ludwig von Mises fund to protect the Market from Frank Lorenzo. A few years ago Irving Kristol wrote a Hook called a two of Beers for capitalism a in which he haded the accomplishments of the marketplace but remarked with sorrow and indignation the bad name some capitalists give to the marketplace. One thinks of the Hunt Brothers attempt to Corner the Silver Market the Silver Market had a Hearty last laugh at the expense of the Hunts. Or the executives who Lake out Golden parachutes so that if their companies sink or Are taken up in mergers they will be Able to waft their Way in luxury to the end of tune. Frank Loren of if you missed it will be paid $30.5 million by the scandinavian airline system in Exchange for his Stock in Continental airlines which also owns what is left of Eastern airlines. The marketplace made its last lapidary judgment on the value of Loren of Jan Carlzon chief executive officer of Sas said that the resignation of Lorenzo from Continental was crucial to the Deal. A without that in the picture we have done it a he said. He Wasny to asked whether Sas would pay still More if Loren of had promised to Lake a Job As co of one of the competitive airlines As it stands Lorenzo is fetching Between $14 and $18 per share of Stock which is about double what the Slock is Selling for. When this was pointed out to him he remarked airily that Continental stockholders should have sold out a year or so ago when the Stock was up at the level Lorenzo is now getting. The moral would appear to be that a shareholder of a company run by Lorenzo should get rid of his Stock As soon As possible. When Loren of took Over Continental he vacated company personnel contracts by the device of letting Continental go bankrupt a and then restoring it contract free. That device is not in and of itself dishonourable but the objective must be served and the objective was to save a company and to put it Back on a solid footing. Eastern airlines which Lorenzo Pur chased and attempted to rehabilitate answered him by going on strike in the Spring of 1989, a strike led by the machinists. They were then led by the labor Union version of a Frank Lorenzo William Winpisinger a socialist More concerned with the class struggle than with the Fate of his Union members. To the Surprise of management the pilots joined in the strike and for Many weeks Eastern was moribund. Little by Little the pilots came Back but the draconian work rules and exit Nous salaries being paid to ground personnel and to administrative staffs broke the fighting spirit of the company. A Frank Lorenzo was not named by the Justice department As one of the nine defendants in a lawsuit alleging that inferior parts were used to maintain Eastern airlines planes in order to Cut Down on the Cost of Well made parts. But assuming the complaint is not frivolous under Frank Lorenzo a management one of the proudest airlines in . History was prepared not Only to humiliate and impoverish its workers but also to run the risk of killing its dwindling patrons Conduce such As his ought to be at least a cultural concern of defenders of the marketplace. There is no Way a Law can be passed to the effect that chief executives ought not to profiteer from the distress of companies they managed. Such Laws could not be written and should t be. But some general manifestation of disdain for the abusers of capitalism is appropriate. The Helmsley Laws we might agree to Call them As we Ponder the rhetoric that will be spent on the Lorenzo Case the next time the democratic convention orators meet to characterize reaganomics. It is a Burden of the marketplace system that it is often practice by men and women of Low moral standards. One of the Best defences of capitalism is that much less harm is done by such abusers than when they find themselves in positions of Power w within government. When that happens their mistakes Are macrocosm in. Eastern will one Hopes recover from the treatment Lorenzo gave it. But the United states has not yet recovered from the treatment it got from such As Lyndon Johnson. William Schlammes Apo them comes to mind the trouble with socialism is socialism. The trouble with capitalism is capitalists. Universal press sync Icente
