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   From: chess88@yahoo.com   
      
   The worst of DeLay's lapses gets even worse   
      
   Posted By Carpetbagger On 7th June 2005 @ 10:28   
      
   It's a tough call, but for my money, the most offensive of the charges   
   swirling around House Majority Leader Tom DeLay is his efforts on behalf of   
   the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI).   
      
   In the late 1990s, DeLay visited Saipan, the main island of the CNMI, on   
   Jack Abramoff's dime. Though it was a clear violation of House ethics rules,   
   it's probably the least troubling aspect of this story.   
      
   Saipan's labor policies are abhorrent, with sweatshops, child labor, forced   
   teenage prostitution, and forced abortions. The island, however, has been a   
   lucrative commercial center for clothing manufacturers that create "Made in   
   the USA" products there because CNMI is considered a U.S. territory.   
      
   Saipan hired Abramoff, who in turn brought DeLay to see the island's   
   businesses. DeLay somehow managed to overlook the repugnant labor problems   
   and was impressed with the island's system.   
      
     To DeLay, Saipan was an inspiration, not an embarrassment. Indeed, the   
   United States, DeLay told the Houston Chronicle in 1998, ought to create a   
   mainland guest-worker program just like the one Saipan offered Chinese   
   citizens, where "particular companies can bring Mexican workers in" and pay   
   them "whatever the market will bear." The Saipan solution, he added, was "a   
   shining example of a free-market success."   
      
   DeLay promoted the island's labor policies, punished the Department of the   
   Interior for highlighting Saipan's problems, and did exactly what Jack   
   Abramoff asked him to do - protect the Mariana Islands' exemption from U.S.   
   labor laws.   
      
   Asked about the horrible working conditions, DeLay said, "The workers there   
   were very well treated." When confronted with charges that workers on Saipan   
   labored in sweatshops while others were forced into sex slavery, DeLay   
   dismissed them "incredible lies."   
      
   According to a devastating new report, however, DeLay is either lying or   
   blind.   
      
      
     House Majority Leader Tom DeLay says he found no victims of sweatshops,   
   sex slavery or forced abortions on the Pacific island of Saipan in the   
   mid-1990s. But Carmencita Abad says thatâ?Ts because DeLay did not want to   
   see them.   
      
     "My answer is, Mr. DeLay, I am that person," Abad said in a telephone   
   interview. "I am an example of an individual who can prove that the accounts   
   of sweatshop labor and forced prostitution are not just allegations but true   
   accounts of working conditions in the Marianas Islands when Mr. DeLay   
   traveled there and turned a blind eye to our misery."   
      
   DeLay's denials are also contradicted by two federal agencies and by   
   congressmen from both parties that the charges were true.   
      
   This is a triple whammy for the beleaguered and corrupt Majority Leader.   
   One, DeLay's trip was financed by Abramoff; two, DeLay saw egregious human   
   rights violations and couldn't care less; and three, DeLay lied about it.   
      
      
      
   Article printed from The Carpetbagger Report:   
   http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com   
      
   URL to article: http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/4384.html   
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)