Couldn't happen to more deserving folks.

Funny how the government has more energy pursuing Tyson now that their best bud Bubba Clinton is no longer president. The INS charges against Tyson for smuggling aliens would never have happened under Clinton.

It gets worse (or better) too:

Associated Press : Texas Wire

Justice Department assigns child exploitation attorney to Tyson case

By BRIAN SKOLOFF (Associated Press Writer)
The Associated Press
Web Posted : 12/20/2001 6:47 PM

The Justice Department has assigned a child exploitation trial attorney to a case against Tyson Foods Inc., but wouldn't say Thursday whether the move indicated a wider investigation.

Prosecutors on Wednesday accused Tyson Foods and six managers of smuggling illegal aliens into the country. Underage workers may have been among those hired improperly, the prosecutors said.

"What we might look into is unlimited in the future," said assistant U.S. attorney John P. MacCoon of Chattanooga, Tenn., where an indictment was unsealed Wednesday.

Tyson said that, for 18 months, it cooperated with an investigation into the hiring of illegal aliens for its chicken plants and subsequently fired several employees linked to the allegations. Nonetheless, the company was among those indicted; Tyson said prosecutors made excessive demands before filing charges.

"This indictment came because Tyson refused to agree to the prosecutor's outrageous financial demands," Tyson personnel vice president Ken Kimbro said.

A statement from prosecutors said Justice Department attorney Stephanie Thacker of Justice's Child Exploitation section would handle part of the case _ although the indictment does not mention child labor law violations.

"I wouldn't want to rule that (child labor violations) out, but I also don't want to imply that her (Thacker's) job title has anything to do with the current case," MacCoon said.

MacCoon, however, added that typically "places where you find very low-grade jobs filled by illegal aliens, you'll also find underage illegal aliens."

MacCoon's legal assistant, Rosalyn Vogel, said Thursday that some of the allegedly illegal workers "might have been underage."

Tyson spokesman Ed Nicholson said Thursday the company was not aware that Justice would use a lawyer from the Child Exploitation section in the case.

Tyson Foods, based at Springdale, was indicted on charges of conspiring to smuggle illegal immigrants to meet production goals and cut costs while they worked at 15 of the company's 57 poultry processing plants.

A company vice president and five other managers were also indicted.

The 15 plants allegedly involved are in nine states _ Alabama, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.

Prosecutors wouldn't describe the nature of talks between Tyson and the government before the indictment was unsealed.

Bryan Sierra, a Justice Department spokesman, said "There are always discussions between the two parties during the course of a criminal investigation before charges are brought," Sierra said.

MacCoon also would not confirm that the government engaged in a discussion with Tyson about forfeiting "the money they saved by hiring illegal labor" before unsealing the indictment. The indictment itself seeks forfeiture of such savings, if any.

"It's considered unethical for attorneys to comment on conversations ... with other attorneys concerning settlements, and I'm not going to violate that standard," MacCoon said.

In 1999, the Labor Department fined Tyson nearly $60,000, saying violations of child labor laws led to the death of a 15-year-old chicken chaser in Hempstead County and injuries to a 15-year-old worker in Sedalia, Mo.

Tyson fought the fine, saying the boy who died was hired by an outside contractor and did not have a relationship to Tyson.

Parts is parts.

Tyson, Clinton, why do those two words remind me of each other?

Slowly, things start to unravel. Perhaps as these cases start to be persued, the dots will start to show a pattern. I would hope that by 2004, Hitlery's name would be mud. (OK, its already mud, but most people don't know it yet).

No doubt Bubba sent them welcoming letters which included their identification cards to present at the polling places in Arkansas.

Who wins in China's chicken war?

By Joseph Farah

I should tell you, I was warned not to write this column.

The last time I suggested there was something fishy about the U.S. poultry business, I heard from a top executive at Tyson Foods. I didn't know what I was talking about, I was told. Contrary to what I had suggested, Clinton's old Arkansas pals and benefactors haven't been given the time of day from their man since he became president, a Tyson official said. In fact, I was told, the company had actually been squeezed hard by federal regulators and the independent counsel investigating its role in Department of Agriculture corruption. There was simply no truth to the notion that Tyson Foods has benefitted in any way from Bill Clinton's ascension to power. In fact, he said, "It's the worst thing that ever happened to us."

I put all that on the record just in case anything should happen to me. If I should suddenly come down with the mysterious "bird flu" virus or contract a fatal case of salmonella poisoning or choke on a chicken McNugget, maybe someone will ask some tough questions, demand an autopsy and prevent my remains from being cremated.

Not that I'm making any accusations, mind you. I am not weaving another conspiracy tale here. All I'm doing is connecting some dots -- pointing out a few coincidences. Maybe that's all they are -- coincidences. It just seems like there have been too many in the last five years.

OK, here it is. Without further ado, let me review some facts.

A few months ago, you may remember, Hudson Foods was hit with an e colibacteria scandal. The federal government regulators pounced on the company-- even sending in a so-called "SWAT team" to shut down operations. Within hours, the company's value plummeted. Within weeks, Hudson Foods had been purchased by its major rival, Tyson Foods, owned by Don Tyson, friend of the president and a long-time financial supporter of his political campaigns.

Tyson Foods had tried to buy Hudson Foods several times in previous years, but the offers were spurned. Only after the smaller company was brought to its knees, at least in part, through a public health scare and some government brute force was Tyson able to make a deal Hudson couldn't refuse. Coincidence? Maybe. Or was it a quid pro quo? Just asking.

Let's also recall that several years earlier, Tyson's general counsel,James Blair, set up a sweetheart deal for Hillary Clinton to get into the cattle futures business. She parlayed a $1,000 investment into nearly $100,000 in a year. Good luck? Probably. I'm sure the Clintons didn't feel indebted to Tyson for the favor any more than they did for all the campaign cash he threw at them over the years.

Now for some recent developments: Tyson Foods just copped a plea and agreed to cooperate with Independent Counsel Donald Smaltz's investigationof former Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy. The company will pay a $6 million fine ("chicken feed," one might say, to the multi-billion-dollar enterprise)for attempting to bribe a Cabinet member.

Coincidentally, the very same day, Hong Kong officials were busy slaughtering every single chicken in the region. Some people in Hong Kong are wondering why such a drastic government action was ordered when only a dozen or so human victims of the deadly "bird flu" virus carried by chickens have been diagnosed. Maybe it's silly, but whenever I see government reacting so quickly and with such overwhelming force, I wonder why. Who's benefiting?

Would you believe a major beneficiary of this disaster -- this public health scare -- could well be, once again, Tyson Foods?

Now I'm sure what I'm about to tell you is just another coincidence-- just the luck of the draw. But let's lay our eggs on the table. Are you sitting down "X-Files" fans? Tyson Foods has struck a major deal with China to explore the feasibility of developing as many as 10 poultry complexes throughout the country.

That's right. I'm not kidding. On April 30, Tyson Foods, the world'slargest fully integrated producer, processor and marketer of chicken, announced it had entered into an agreement with Kerry Holdings Limited, the Hong Kong-based unit of the multinational conglomerate, the Kuok Group, to expand its operations bigtime in the People's Republic of China.

What fortuitous timing! Now that every private chicken developer in the area has been wiped out by a Chinese government blitzkrieg, Tyson is poised to take over the South China poultry market. Its major push is expected to come in early 1998. Now, remember, Tyson's deal is with the very same Chinese government that apparently pumped massive amounts of illegal cash into Clinton's 1996 presidential campaign. What's that saying about "birds of a feather"?

I know, I know. I'm just the suspicious type. Perhaps, I am too cynical.But coincidences like this make me nervous.

George Forman runs a better company.

Will GW have to pull out another EO to protect Tyson? He let Bubba off with one.

Joe Giroir still represents Lippo and has brokered ventures between Lippo and Tyson Foods to improve sales of Tyson chicken in the Far East.

The Clinton administration has provided $21 million in funding for a new, giant airport in a remote, unpopulated area in Northern Arkansas to be used to ship the Tyson-Lippo chicken.

Between the time that Webster Hubbell resigned as Deputy Attorney General and the time he was sent to jail, he was paid $250,000 by the Lippo Group. During the same time frame he was cooperating with Kenneth Starr who hoped that Hubbell would implicate Bill Clinton in Whitewater-related crimes. Hubbell did not. Why should he?

Mochtar Riady created Lippo Finance & Investment Inc., an SBA-backed lending company in Little Rock with Vernon Weaver as chairman. Weaver is now Clinton's U.S. representative to the European Union.

The Riadys owned First National Bank in Mena, a bank that was used by drug smugglers to launder money.

The Los Angeles-based Lippo Bank has twice received cease- and-desist orders from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. for violations of money-laundering statutes.

Perhaps most telling was the experience of Independent Counsel Donald Schmalz. He was appointed to investigate charges that Clinton-backer Don Tyson had made illegal gifts to Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy.

In the course of his investigation, Schmalz uncovered evidence Bill Clinton, when governor of Arkansas had received cash bribes from Tyson. One of Tyson's airline pilots testified under oath that he had ferried bundles of cash for Governor Clinton to Little Rock Airport, where Clinton's state trooper bodyguards made the pickup.

Schmalz's evidence was strong and included testimony from one or more troopers supporting the pilot's allegations. But Reno opposed his every move to expand his jurisdiction. In 1997, Schmalz described to Peter Boyer of PBS a remarkable showdown he had with Reno and six Justice officials over the Tyson allegations.

Schmalz told Boyer that until that point he had dismissed his wife's fears his life was in jeopardy while investigating the Clintons. But when he saw the control Clinton had over the Justice Department of the United States he said he was truly shaken. His greatest fears, he said, were for the country.

Meanwhile, as she has her entire career, Janet Reno sits in an office where she has sworn to see justice done and criminal activity prosecuted while steadfastly violating that oath to protect Bill and Hillary Clinton.

In his weekly Progressive Review editor Sam Smith, who also is a columnist for The Progressive Populist, relates Smaltz apparently wanted to look into alleged transfers of cash from Tyson Food to the Arkansas governor's mansion reported by a former Tyson pilot.

"It is not known what is at stake here," Smith writes, "but it may be that Smaltz wanted to peer behind Arkansas' white and green wall of cocaine and money laundering that has repeatedly stumped serious criminal, congressional and journalistic investigators looking into the Clinton scandals.

Smith goes on to note that "although there is no known connection, Smaltz' request came two days after the Fayettesville, Arkansas, police filed murder charges against two brothers in the 1986 death of Mitchell D. Abel, a cocaine dealer and University of Arkansas architecture student. Abel's shooting had been followed a few days later by the mysterious death of Randall Tyson, a Tyson Foods VP and half brother of Don Tyson. The medical examiner said Tyson had choked to death on a cookie, but there was speculation that the deaths of Abel and Tyson were somehow connected."

I'm not sure but this could be the half brother of Don Tyson who was a huge cocaine addict. Some Arkansas Freeper who knows could help out here.

See kcvl's Farrah story at #9. Been going on for a long time. All of what Farrah notes is or was in the archives on FR.

There's something Biblical about all of Tyson's current problems.

BTW, it was noted last week that another one of Don Tyson's sons was going to run against Huckabee for Governor but withdrew his committee.

Tyson uses illegal immigrants to do jobs that nobody else wants in America.

this is the canard used by those who would continue to allow our present immigration policies to destroy our country.

worse still, it is obviously disingenuous: Just how difficult do you think it would be to fill any one of those jobs if it paid, oh ... say, $50,000 a year?

Sorta makes you wonder how long the Clintons have been covering up for these people. Follow the money.

for in the intervening years, IBP's "good deed" seems to have been rewarded, often through the good graces of the Clinton administration's Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS).

One way the beef giant had become dominant in its field was by recruiting low-skilled non-union foreign workers to staff its slaughterhouses, where the work is always arduous and often dangerous. IBP had been actively recruiting laborers from all over the world for years.

A little more than a year after IBP helped facilitate Tyson's takeover of Hudson, the Journal explored the company's practice of hiring foreign workers under the headline: "With Help from INS, U.S. Meatpacker Taps Mexican Work Force."

"So why isn't the INS turning its searchlights on IBP's Mexico campaign?," the Journal asked. "Why, instead, is the federal agency hailing IBP as a model of cooperation? The answer reflects the complex interplay between public policy, a company's economic needs and a government agency's political interests," reported the paper.

“Complex interplay?” Limbacher scoffs, “basically, in 1996 the Clinton INS offered the beef giant a program called Basic Pilot, which was designed to help big employers of foreign labor avoid undocumented workers and comply with immigration laws.”

But in practice, he adds, Basic Pilot often meant that immigration laws were ignored altogether. The meatpacking giant, which was hit by INS raids six times between 1994 and 1997 (the year of the Hudson buyout), hasn't had a single INS raid since. John Nathan, the INS official overseeing the program, told the Journal that "the INS assumes a high degree of compliance" with Basic Pilot.

“And IBP's good fortune didn't end there,” Limbacher continues, “turns out the Clinton administration's Bosnian refugee resettlement efforts also helped to keep labor costs down. Since 1995, for instance, the town of Waterloo, Iowa --- population 65,000 - has been swamped with 6,000 Bosnian refugees, many of whom wound up working for the No. 1 local employer, IBP.”

Until recently, IBP's 2,000-strong Waterloo workforce was one-third Bosnian. Most refugee families that settle there have a family member who at one time or another worked for the meatpacking giant. In fact, the meatpacking industry has a history of recruiting on the ground in Yugoslavia. But during the Clinton years, companies like IBP haven't had to travel that far.

Since 1995, the Clinton INS has resettled over 80,000 Balkan refugees, mainly Bosnian Muslims, primarily in America's Midwest. The immigrant deluge has earned Iowa the distinction of being the only state in the union with its own refugee bureau.

So, as Limbacher concludes his intriquing story, “perhaps it's fitting that IBP should finally be absorbed by Tyson Foods, with its long history of financial backing of both Bill and Hillary Clinton, especially since it was the Clinton Agriculture Department's heavy hand that brought the two meat processing giants together in the first place.”

The esteemed Hildebeast was on Tyson's board of directors and made that $100,000 on cattle futures thru the efforts of a Tyson excutive.

Tyson had eight years of operation with Bill Clinton and Janet Reno's justice department being out to lunch.

In June 2000, chicken catchers, who work under extremely difficult conditions supplying live birds to chicken processors, filed a suit against Tyson over its "failure to pay overtime wages" to workers who, according to "a 1996 US Supreme Court Ruling and ... [a] ... ruling in February 2000 in US District Court," are employees. On April 4, Tyson came in with an offer to settle the lawsuit. However, the "offer made by Tyson was 1/20th the amount owed to the catchers." That is, for every dollar owed to the workers, Tyson would give them 5 cents. "We didn't catch 1/20th of Tyson's chickens" said an angry Patrick Harmon, a former chicken catcher for Tyson.

"...where you find very low-grade jobs filled by illegal aliens, you'll also find underage illegal aliens."

mgmt policy??? hey, it's great for dates.