I do not want to get into politics with you.  But -- there is a reason why over 50 Nobel Prize winners favor Kerry vs. two favors Bush.  It is called intelligence, objectivity, openness, analysis, and knowledge.

If you really want to understand why George bush is not what this country needs, I did keep "score for a while and then realized this man is bought and paid for by big business, he has no social justice, and he is far from the "compassionate conservative.

Your line is less well researched than Michael Moore!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In reality, he wants to be in your bedroom, but wants to destroy what I think is open democracy and tell each of us how we live.  Then again, we could discuss the war, and what it implies, and if you think he figured out an exit strategy, let me know.  Just be happy you do not have to serve!

Last, this is one dude I would not want as my neighbor if I think of the U.S.A. as one member of the world community.   If this is a "neighbor" -- I would move if I could.  The problem is, I live in this world.  It is why our credibility in the world has never been lower.   

I would be happy to discuss this in detail over a beer, wine, or what ever. 

Doug

----- Original Message -----

From:  Roy

Subject: Made In Mexico

Shortly after reading the following e-mail content, I happened to look at the label of a jar of Heinz sandwich sliced pickles. Yep.... Made in Mexico"
 
Check some of your Heinz products. "Sen. John Kerry keeps talking about U.S. corporations leaving this country and setting up shop in foreign countries, taking thousands of jobs with them. He is right, because that has happened.

However, he is trying to blame George W. Bush. As far as I know, Bush has not moved one factory out of this   country because he is not the owner of a single factory. That cannot be said about Kerry and his   wife, Teresa Heinz-Kerry. According to the Wall Street Journal, the Kerry's own 32 factories in Europe and 18 in Asia and the Pacific.

In addition, their company, the Heinz Company, leases four factories in Europe and four in Asia.

Also, they own 27 factories in North America, some of which are in Mexico and the Caribbean. 80% of Heinz products are made overseas. I wonder how many hundreds of American workers lost their jobs when these plants relocated in foreign countries. I also wonder if the workers in Mexico and Asia are paid the same wages and benefits as workers in the United States. Of course they're not. However, Kerry demands that other companies that relocate should pay the same benefits they did in the U.S. Why does he not demand this of the Heinz Company, since he is married to the owner? If Kerry is elected, will he and his wife close all those foreign factories and bring all those jobs back to America? Of course they won't. They're making millions off that cheap labor.

***

Doug:

George W. Bush

First year in office

A.     Family planning funding word wide eliminated and is working to bypass congressional control, all under the idea of rejecting birth control and abortion.  This is a direct appeal to the religious right.  I cannot believe he really cares, unless it has votes attached to it, and thus, represents a payoff of the contributors.

B.      Bush/Aschroff wants to reverse Oregon assisted suicide, for the same reason.  What was really strange was he did it when we are having much greater concerns for security with the World trade tower disaster

C.      School vouchers - grades without means testing

D.      Aschroff:  A Pentecostal who was quoted at Bob Jones University “ in America, we have no king but Jesus”.  Did he forget the other religions?  His opposition to a black judicial nominee, a gay ambassadorial nominee, abortion rights and his odd defense of slave-owners and confederate generals is one thing.  His attempt to overturn Oregon’s law of assisted suicide is another.  His Military courts of secrecy is another.  He does not understand the separation of church and state [not dissimilar to the Taliban ] and neither does Bush.  The attorney’s general’s job is to uphold the Constitutions and enforce the rule of law.  Aschroff doesn’t understand due process, separation of church and state

E.       Bush wants to place the US Embassy in Jerusalem!  Very one sided in dealing with the Palestine people, especially at a time when we need a balance approach to a very complex problem.

F.      Bush has clearly sided with Israel over the Palestine community and it is even worse now after 9-11.  This may be one of the real reasons 9-11 occurred in the first place.  Our position is only accepted by one country, Israel.  Europe certainly sees it differently, as do most Arab states.

G.     Star Wars expansion, even though it is unproven and there are many more important places to spend our money-by doing so, we break the ABM TREATY HE broke the treaty December 2001.  Europe is opposed, as is every other country in the world.  The next bomb comes in a suitcase, not a rocket.  It may not be a bomb.  Clearly if developed, another way to hurt us will be devised.  This decision is only to assist the big donors of his campaign acquire more money via the defense industry

H.     Tax benefit of 35% of the return to top 1% of populous.  This is at the same time he is stating that Social Security is broken.  This is at the same time, he is trying to build up Star Wars missile defense and the military, all the while, he has spent the money on a tax return to the wealthy.  Why do we have a deficit?

I.       Campaign finance reform rejected or undermined.  HE is the only president that is so flagrant in his need to pay back his campaign contributors, that it isn’t even subtle.  In fact, most of the public feels he is too pro business.  What is clear, is that, for those contributors, it is clear to them they can still be allowed to buy their candidates of choice. 

J.       Reversed the national monument designations of Clinton, feeling that is was anti-business expansion.  The national monument designation denied the exploration of these areas for the oil, gas etc that resides under these areas.  Luckily, the courts rejected some of this effort.  Payback to the donors?

K.      Rejected the CO2 limits for our atmosphere, favoring industry over the earth, reversing a campaign promise that was intended and did undermine Gore's concern for the environment with the voters.  He really didn't believe in global warming after all.  He subsequently rejected the Kyoto agreement, saying it would hurt the US economy.  Europe and 178 nations agreed to proceed without the US.  His own office agreed global warming was a concern, and he referred to them as bureaucrats.

L.      Permitted higher amounts of arsenic in our drinking water, deciding in favor of the mining industry over the people’s risk of exposure to this carcinogen.  Congress has overturned his limits, agreeing with the Clinton administration.  We will see what happens in 2003.

M.     Proposed cuts in funding childcare assistance for low-income families.  These are not big contributors to his campaign war chest

N.      Proposed cuts in funding for programs designed to investigate and combat child abuse.  This action was defended as being too much government interference.  It appears our Government can interfere only to help industry and big business.

O.    Plans to cut off all money congress allocated for the "early learning " trust fund which is an effort to improve the quality of child care and education for children under 5-a cornerstone of successful efforts to move people from welfare to work.

P.      Repealed the set of workplace safety rules designed to protect tens of millions of Americans, yet opposed as too onerous by business

Q.    Ended ABA’s [American Bar Association ]  half century advisory role in selection of federal judges, making it easier to appoint extreme right-wing judges.

R.     Suspended the regulation prohibiting federal contracts from going to bidders with a history of violating environmental, health, safety and other federal laws.  IS this payback for money or what?

S.      Wants to overthrow the nuclear test ban treaty, much to the consternation of Europe.

T.      His administration has rejected the draft protocol on enforcing the treaty on the germ warfare, an international agreement, because it would hurt "national security and confidential business information”.   Europe believes otherwise.  This opposition to the ban on biologic weapons undercuts 7 years of intense negotiations to secure an agreement.  This was before the Anthrax issue.  At the same time, he has not tried to enforce the treaty. He disbanded the US participation December 2001.  World reaction is anger and disbelief. 

U.     Rejected the restriction of trafficking in the sale of small arms to rebel groups, The reason is less than clear, but in addition, they oppose any plan that interferes with civilian gun ownership [sounds like the NRA was involved in this].  Europe rejects this, worrying about the sale of guns to countries with poor human rights or for uses to fuel wars

V.     VP Cheney refused to reveal who sat on his commission to over see the Energy proposals that the administration has presented, fearing the revelation would appear to only represent big oil.  It does.  He is being litigated over this, and still refuses to disclose this, based on executive privilege.  [see Number 36 for the follow-up]

W.   Carl Rowe has been involved on two separate occasions dealing with companies in which he has stock investments.  This has being pointed out to Bush, who defends him.

X.      Unlike Clinton, who did things that injured his own family, Bush does things that injure the country, the environment, the public safety while there is no reaction from the populous or the self-righteous members of congress.

Y.     He has opposed the international treaty to ban land mines.  The idea was it interfered with the North Korea DMZ zone.

Z.      He has opposed the pact to form an international criminal court, probably because our country would be the first to be accused, based on all our surreptitious dealings with 3^rd world dictators.  In fact, if the United Nations were to be formed today, the USA would oppose it, feeling that international laws subvert the USA’s right to do what it wants.  On the other hand, if it involves international corporations, there should be no rules that govern them, giving them carte blanche to do what ever they want, whenever they want to achieve their corporate goals.

Having exceeded the alphabet, I move to numbers:

1.     Appointed Otto Reich to the post of special envoy of Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs [he was accused by Congress in 1987 of engaging in prohibited, covert propaganda activities during Reagan’s battle with Nicaragua.  He was the director of the office of public diplomacy at the state department, which was found to have engaged in prohibited acts of domestic propaganda to generate support for the contras.

2.     Appointed  John Negroponte to become US ambassador to the United Nations [under Reagan, Negorponte as, was the Reagan administrations point man ran the  US/Contra War against Nicaragua from his post as ambassador to Honduras ]

3.     Bush angered many Muslims after the disaster when he equated his "war on terrorism" to the Christian crusades of old –this occurred after the world trade center disaster

4.     Our democracy’s values should not be casualties of war.  I think George doesn’t understand this in the least.  Curbs on civil liberties rarely turn out to be temporary, even if intended.  I am again worried that our “leader” doesn’t understand this.

5.     Heritage foundation in conjunction with the Banking lobby via pressure on Bush stopped the US government from cracking down on off shore money linked to crime and terrorism, because it would have uncovered the wealthy people who were also hiding money to avoid taxation.  The president of the Heritage Foundation spent an hour with Treasury Secretary O’Neal and thus, the US pulled out of the international campaign against Tax havens.    Better terrorist get their dirty money than the tax cheater be prevented from hiding their money, all the while, wrapping themselves in the US flag.

6.     AT present, Bush with the House of Representatives IS TRYING to eliminate the Corporate Alternative Minimum Tax, enacted 15 years ago.  They want all the money assessed over those 15 years paid back.  This is while they reject any help for the people who lost their jobs.  What happens in 2003?

7.     Bush with the House of Representatives is also running roughshod over the environment, all under the allusion of patriotism.  The want to forgive GE for the Hudson river clean up, give tax breaks to the giant energy companies, subsidize the largest and wealthiest companies while trying to open the Alaskan wilderness to drilling will while waving the Flag.  This was all under the defense bill.  It has nothing to do with defense

8.     Environmental issues:

(a.)            Superfund sites no longer cleaned up.  33 Toxic waste sites in 18 states.

(b.)           Feb, 2002, Top enforcement official at the EPA quit because of the White House attempts to not enforce the rules

(c.)            Bush broke campaign promise to regulate industrial emissions of carbon dioxide

(d.)           Kyoto protocol rejected the required industrial nations to reduce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases

(e.)            Bush rejected his own admin report on global warming called it a bureaucratic nothing.  The projections of is own report  talked about the devastating environmental consequences of global climate change

(f.)             Used the war effort to try to acquire rights to drill in Alaska, whereas this will have no benefit for 10 years.  At the same time, he rejected mileage restrictions on cars, which would have immediate affects.  2003?

(g.)           Encouraged mining in our national parks.

9.     His actions in the insider trading of his Stock in Harken Energy Corporation was fraudulent, clearly broke all SEC rules, and now blames his attorney for the reasons.  He did this aware the SEC felt if the stocks were sold it would be insider trading.  He did it anyway, and they did not enforce it.

10. He is supporting the most corrupt Arab nations, ignoring the most democratic one of Iran.

11. Rejection of the world Court concept.  At the same time, using that position to try to destroy it or take our troops out of Bosnia is inflaming the world.  His representative at the UN has been clearly denounced for the stand taken

12. Hallburtin and Cheney role of deceit is remarkable

13. When G. Schroder of Germany spoke against the war in Iraq, the FBI and the CIA were told to no longer co-operate with the Germany government to fight terrorism.  Hamburg is where Atta came from.  Now, that government cannot get any help in prosecuting Islamic terrorists.  What is the real objective of the BUSH administration, if this is the tactic?

14. He told the department of Agriculture to be less restrictive on bacteria testing and quality in meat.  Since that time, in 2002, there have been more reported illnesses and deaths [Listeria] and recalls of meat products then ever reported. 

15. SEC chairman: While investors have demanded a crackdown on corporate malfeasance, Bush first selected Harvey Pitt- By every criterion, Bush doesn’t want much oversight of Corporate America.  Every attempt at an honest aggressive oversight has been rejected.  The appointment of Webster, is further validation of this concern since Mr. Webster headed the audit committee of the board of U.S. Technologies, a company that is now nearly insolvent.  Webster’s committee fired the company’s auditors in 2003 when they raised concerns about internal financial controls.  He told this to Pitt, who still asked him to fill the role as chairman of the new oversight board for the accounting profession.  Pitt did not tell the rest of the SEC this information.  Bush and republican leaders rejected Mr. Biggs, because he was known for being fair but tough on corporate Malfeasance. 

16. FDA lawyer appointed by Bush: Daniel Troy, the new layer that Bush appointed FDA General counsel was the most aggressive lawyer for the Drug companies challenging the agency’s power to regulate drug companies, especially in their promotion and marketing of products.  Since he became General council, there has been a dramatic decrease in the number of drug companies that have be reprimanded for running false or misleading commercials, even though the number of drug ads have been filling the airways have multiplied.

17. He has called the UN irrelevant for not enforcing its demands on Iraq, yet at the same time, the UN has not enforced mandates on Israel, and he agrees with that decision.  Consistency is not his strong suit, and he will say anything he can to have his way.  Anyone that does not agree is irrelevant or evil.  He even accused the Senate and Tom Daschle of not been American for questioning his decision on Iraq. 

18. Bush ran for president on being the consensus builder for the country, to remove partisan politics. His job is to unify the nation.   Since he has been president, the partisan politics is worse than ever, he has campaigned harder and collected more money that any prior president in the same time frame.  He sees nothing wrong in seeking partisan advantage from a national crisis, even going so far as to declare that members of the other party don’t care about the nation’s security.

19. U.S. abandons support for U.N. population accord: We helped write the accord 8 years ago.  But the 1994 Cairo accord had “reproductive health services and reproductive rights” in the final declaration.  This has been endorsed by 179 nations.  This accord was considered a watershed event because it moved away from traditional ideas of family planning and embraced the idea that giving women more control over their lives would provide a check against explosive population growth.

20. July 2002, the administration decided to withhold $34 million in previously approved aid to the United Nations population fund, contending that the agency helps Chinese government agencies that force women to have abortions.  This in fact was not true, but we still withheld the money.  All this occurs as the administration is trying to put together international coalitions on various other efforts to fight Iraq. 

21. Attempt to repeal the estate tax: Affects a very small but rich elite.  With the recent tax cut, 40 % of the benefits of that tax cut go to the wealthiest 1% as it is, but the estate tax affects a much smaller population.  To eliminate the estate tax in the face of budget deficits means making the rich richer even as we slash essential services for the middle class and the poor.  IT does not affect small businesses and farms, but those who would benefit paid the propaganda.

22. Admiral Poindexter [Iran Contra] will be in charge of “total Information Awareness” under the homeland security bill.  He will direct a Pentagon project that would assemble information on suspected terrorists.  He the National security adviser in the Reagan administration and was convicted in 1990 of 5 felony counts including making false statements to congress.  He was the one with Ollie North who arrogantly deceived the American public for the sake of what they felt was the best policy, even though this was against the law. 

23. The appointment of Elliott Abrams to be the Senior director for Near East and North African affairs at the National Security council.  He has been a passionate advocate of Israel.  The state department has expressed “serious consternation” and concern because they have advocated for Israel to ease its crackdown in the West Bank and Gaza.  He was the Assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere Affairs under the Reagan administration and pleaded guilty to withholding information about the case from congress.  President George H. W. Bush later pardoned him.

24. The appointment of Henry Kissinger at head of the commission into the investigation of 9-11.  Kissinger is known for his ability to deceive, not investigate.  It appears Bush, who was opposed to this commission in the first place, will undermine it with this appointment.

25. January 2003, the Bush administration is opened the possibility that up to 20% of the nations wetlands, [20 million acres in all] could lose protections the currently enjoy under the Clean Water Act.

26. January 2003, Addressing pesticides, the Bush administration is trying to get exempted from the ban on the pesticide methyl bromide, called for under the international treaty for 2005.  They feel businesses would be harmed.  This damages the ozone level.  The Montreal Protocol, is a 15 year-old pact.

27. 2003, Bush administration sided with PHARma and the pharmaceutical industry against the state of Maine.  Maine’s law was if a drugmaker refuses to negotiate, the state could impose prior authorization requirements on its drugs.  Bush felt it restricts access to medications for Medicaid beneficiaries.  WOW.

28. Faith-based initiatives: 2003, Feb, allows religious groups that receive federal dollars to discriminate in hiring based on religion.  He did this through executive order and federal rule changes when then were derailed by congress last year.  Another proposal would allow religious groups that receive federal money for drug treatment program to discriminate against employees based on their religious beliefs.  March 2003, the congress rejected a request to pass a law based on the faith-based initiative.  In fact, by presidential decree, many of the objectives have been accomplished by the administration.

29.  NAIROBI, Kenya, Feb. 8, 2003— Delegates attending a United Nations environmental conference here last week endorsed a global crackdown on pollution caused by mercury, although the United States blocked efforts for binding restrictions on its use.  Mercury, a highly toxic heavy metal, is particularly dangerous for infants and children, and it can be passed from pregnant women to their fetuses. Human exposure to mercury comes from a variety of sources — consumption of fish, occupational and household uses, dental fillings and some vaccines.

30. WASHINGTON, Feb. 15, 2003 — President Bush has decided to allow organizations that promote or perform abortions in poor countries to qualify under some circumstances for part of the $15 billion he has proposed to fight AIDS in Africa and the Caribbean, an administration official said

31. Bush administration March 2003, approved plan to significantly increase the amount of land logged in the Tongass National Forest in Alaska opening some of the U.S.s last remaining stands of ancient rainforest. This opens up 600,000 more acres more. 

32. In March 2003, the World Health Assembly tried to develop a global convention that would restrict the marketing of tobacco products-but the United States objected, being a tobacco-exporting nation.  The goal of the WHA was to help less developed nations head off the plague of tobacco-related death and illnesses in the coming years.  WHO projected 10million deaths a years.  Our stated reason is constitutional protection for commercial speech.  The USA also felt it conflicted with congressional or state prerogatives.  

33. THE WAR, how it was presented, how it was projected, how we dealt with everyone and the result.

34. Richard Perle, appointed by Donald Rumsfeld to be the chairman of the Defense policy board[advises the Pentagon on war matters] is retained by a telecommunications company called Global Crossing.  His job, paid $750,000 with a $600,000 bonus if the government approves the sale of the company to a joint venture of Hutchison Whampoa, controlled by Hong Kong Billionaire and Singapore Technologies Telemedia.  The Defense Department is against the sale to a foreign company.  HE did resign as Chairman, but remains on the board, not at the request of Bush or Rumsfeld, but at the demand of the New York times and the publicity that was associated with he position.

35. The Bush administration has been quietly doing on the home front while the nation is preoccupied with Iraq. This week President Bush signed an executive order that makes it easier for government agencies, including the White House, to keep documents classified and out of public view.  The order does a number of things at once. It delays by three years the release of declassified government documents dating from 1978 or earlier. It treats all material sent to American officials from foreign governments — no matter how routine — as subject to classification. It expands the ability of the Central Intelligence Agency to shield documents from declassification. And for the first time, it gives the vice president the power to classify information. Offering that power to Vice President Dick Cheney, who has shown indifference to the public's right to know what is going on inside the executive branch, seems a particularly worrying development.  All of this amends an order by President Bill Clinton that actually eased the process of declassification. The administration says the three-year delay in declassifying documents dating to the Carter administration and earlier is necessary because of a huge backlog of documents that must be reviewed before decisions are made on whether to declassify them. Taken individually, each of these actions might raise eyebrows for anyone who values open government. Taken together, they are reminders that this White House is obsessed with secrecy. President Clinton's policy was that "when in doubt," a document was not automatically classified. That ensured that government papers would not easily be kept under wraps without a compelling reason. And while President Bush keeps in place many of the mechanisms for automatic declassification, he has raised a bar that can only hurt the ability of historians, researchers and all Americans to arrive at informed judgments about the actions of the presidents and their administrations considered themselves tough-minded realists, and regarded doubters as fuzzy-minded whiners.

36. In spring 2001 the lights were going out all over California. There were blackouts and brownouts, and the price of electricity was soaring. The Cheney task force was convened in the midst of that crisis. It concluded, in brief, that the energy crisis was a long-term problem caused by meddling bureaucrats and pesky environmentalists, who weren't letting big companies, do what needed to be done. The solution? Scrap environmental rules, and give the energy industry multibillion-dollar subsidies.  Along the way, Mr. Cheney sneeringly dismissed energy conservation as a mere "sign of personal virtue" and scorned California officials who called for price controls and said the crisis was being exacerbated by market manipulation. In fact, the California energy crisis had nothing to do with environmental restrictions, and a lot to do with market manipulation. In 2001 the evidence for manipulation was basically circumstantial. But now we have a new report from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which until now has discounted claims of market manipulation. No more: the new report concludes that market manipulation was pervasive, and offers a mountain of direct evidence, including phone conversations, e-mail and memos. California's power shortages were largely artificial, created by energy companies to drive up prices and profits.  What ended the crisis? Key factors included energy conservation and price controls. Meanwhile, what happened to that long-term shortage of capacity, which required scrapping environmental rules and providing lots of corporate welfare? Within months after the Cheney report's release, stock analysts were downgrading energy companies because of a looming long-term-capacity glut.  In short, Mr. Cheney and his tough-minded realists were blowing smoke: their report described a fantasy world that bore no relation to reality. How did they get it so wrong?  One answer is that Mr. Cheney made sure that his task force included only like-minded men: as far as we can tell, he didn't consult with anyone except energy executives. So the task force was subject to what military types call "incestuous amplification," defined by Jane's Defense Weekly as "a condition in warfare where one only listens to those who are already in lock-step agreement, reinforcing set beliefs and creating a situation ripe for miscalculation." Another answer is that Mr. Cheney basically drew his advice about how to end the energy crisis from the very companies creating the crisis, for fun and profit. But was he in on the joke?  We may never know what really went on in the energy task force since the Bush administration has gone to extraordinary lengths to keep us from finding out. At first the nonpartisan General Accounting Office, which is supposed to act as an internal watchdog, seemed determined to pursue the matter. But after the midterm election, according to the newsletter The Hill, Congressional Republicans approached the agency's head and threatened to slash his budget unless he backed off.  And therein lies the broader moral. In the last two years Mr. Cheney and other top officials have gotten it wrong again and again — on energy, on the economy, on the budget. But political muscle has insulated them from any adverse consequences. So they, and the country, don't learn from their mistakes — and the mistakes keep getting bigger.Halliburton, Dick Cheney’s former employer, received the first multimillion-dollar contract to rebuild Iraq.  They are a huge contributor to the Bush administration, and again validates this Administration is bought and pay for by large corporations.

37. Loral Space and Communications, as it faced government accusations that it improperly transferred rocket technology to China, administration officials said today.  Officials at the State Department said that the senior official considering how to resolve the rocket matter, Assistant Secretary Lincoln P. Bloomfield Jr., was contacted by Mr. Perle once or twice in the second half of 2001 on behalf of the company. At the time, Mr. Bloomfield, who heads the State Department's bureau of political-military affairs, and other officials were investigating accusations that Loral turned over expertise that significantly improved the reliability of China's nuclear missiles."We have an office, our political-military office, led by Assistant Secretary Linc Bloomfield, who did receive queries from Mr. Perle," Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said in response to a question during an interview today. "And quite appropriate, since Richard was, I guess, authorized for Loral to ask. In conducting our regular business I know that Linc and members of Linc's staff did have conversations with Richard Perle. We would do that with anybody who is authorized to call and ask of such matters." Mr. Perle said this afternoon that he was retained by Loral seven months before his appointment by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld to head the Defense Policy Board and was given a one-time retainer at the outset of his work. "I was retained by Loral in January 2001 to assist the company in assessing its dispute with the government concerning transfers of technology to the Chinese, to recommend approaches to settling that dispute including new security arrangements to assure against any further technology leakage," he said. "At no time did I urge any government official to settle the case. "Mr. Perle declined to say how much he was paid by Loral. He said he did not file a lobbying disclosure statement because he did no lobbying on behalf of Loral. The case against Loral, which originated in 1997 with a Pentagon finding that Loral and Hughes Electronics had improperly turned over technical information to the Chinese, was settled in January 2002. Loral, without admitting or denying that it had violated the law, agreed to pay a $20 million penalty, the largest settlement of a technology transfer case at the time. The government accused Loral of providing Chinese officials with confidential materials from an American panel that investigated the February 1996 crash of a Loral satellite, which was built for Intelsat, the international consortium, and was launched by a Chinese Long March rocket. The inquiry into Loral and other companies resulted in restrictions that have prevented the industry from seeking new business with China. The Defense Department declined to say what Mr. Rumsfeld knew about Mr. Perle's work for Loral. In a statement on Thursday accepting Mr. Perle's resignation, Mr. Rumsfeld said that he had known Mr. Perle for many years "and know him to be a man of integrity and honor."

Jeanette Clonan, a spokeswoman at Loral, said last week that she would ask Bernard L. Schwartz, the company's chairman and chief executive, about Mr. Perle's role in the case. Since then, Ms. Clonan has not replied to daily messages, including one today, left at her office, seeking comment. Other people involved in the case have said Mr. Perle was retained on the instructions of Mr. Schwartz, who came under criticism by some Republicans during the Clinton administration for being one of the largest political donors to Democrats.

Mr. Schwartz retained a prominent team to defend the company in the investigation. Among those who worked on the matter were Douglas J. Feith, who is now under secretary of defense for policy. Mr. Feith is also an old friend and former colleague of Mr. Perle. When Mr. Perle was an assistant defense secretary in the Reagan administration, Mr. Feith was his special counsel.

The Loral matter is the second instance in which Mr. Perle was doing business on behalf of an American company encountering government difficulties over ties to China. Mr. Perle had been retained by Global Crossing, the communications giant, to overcome Defense Department opposition to its proposal to be sold to a venture led by Hutchison Whampoa, the conglomerate controlled by the Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-

38.