Ken Lay & Jonathan Aitken – Separated At Birth?
I think we should be told …
This on Lay, from DeDurkeim at Rising Hegemon:
“In Bush’s Amerika being guilty does not equal guilt. Take for example, the arguments of one Kenny boy Lay who recently has hit the media to defend their running of the lil Houston company of Enron. According to him and his supporters (does he really have supporters?), he is innocent. There is a campaign out to get him. To which we here at the Rising Hegemon can only say: HUH?!?!?!!
Ken Lay declared his innocence, demonized his accusers and asked ex-employee “truth sayers” to rally around him for his trial, in a Tuesday speech.
Damn. We have mountains of evidence, reluctant prosecutors, and hundreds if not thousands of employees have been devastated… and they are all evil and wrong?
Just a month before his Jan. 17 federal trial on seven conspiracy and fraud charges, the former Enron chairman drew polite applause with his luncheon address titled “Guilty, until proven innocent,” in part a call to arms to Enron employees to defend the honor of the company and Lay himself.
Wha? Lay wants employees who lost their savings, livelihood, and pensions to defend him? Also, uh isn’t it hard to defend the honor of a company that overcharged people to heat and light their homes?
Lay quoted Winston Churchill, saying, “Truth is the great rock,” and in his case, prosecutors have submerged it in a “wave of terror.”
“Enron employees really have only two choices. Either we stand up now ? and prove that Enron was a real company, a substantial company, an honest company, a company that had a vision and values … or we will leave this horrific legacy shaped by others,” he said.
No, Mr. Lay they have another choice. They can watch you drown in your own lies, deceit, and legacy… though you are not going to like the legacy your going to get. And its not because anyone is out to get you. You run a company into the ground and it is right that you pay for it.”
“If it falls to me to start a fight to cut out the cancer of bent and twisted journalism in our country with the simple sword of truth and the trusty shield of British fair play, so be it.”
Jonathan Aitken, launching his libel action against the Guardian in 1997.Aitken was then charged with perjury and perverting the course of justice, and in 1999 was jailed for 18 months (of which he served 7 months). He was unable to cover legal costs and was declared bankrupt. As part of the bankruptcy his trustees settled legal actions against the magazine Private Eye over the various claims it had made that Aitken was a serial liar. He also became one of the few people to resign from the Privy Council.
Aitken went to jail… I wonder what, if anything at all, will happen to Ken Lay?
