GORE'S OTHER INTERESTS

To the editor:

In the interest of increasing public knowledge, I submit the following
observations.

Waging "war" consistently fails to stop drug use, and in the guise of the
War on Some Drugs, our government serves corporate interests. Al Gore has
close ties to Democrat donor Occidental Petroleum (Oxy), which seeks to
drill for oil on land traditionally cared for by indigenous
Colombians. Oxy did not consult them, and they oppose the drilling, as it
threatens their land, livelihood and lives.

The Clinton-Gore administration's energy secretary, Bill Richardson, hired
an Oxy lobbyist to work for him. Richardson himself visited Colombia to
meet with government officials on Oxy's behalf. Under Gore's "reinventing
government" initiative, Gore championed the sale of federal land to Oxy in
an unprecedented closed bidding process, tripling Oxy's U.S. oil reserves
overnight. This was the largest privatization of federal land in history.

The $1.3 billion we're now giving Colombia is just part of a larger package
- -- 80 percent of which is for military use, and Clinton waived Congress'
human rights requirements! Strenthening Colombia's military makes Colombia
more secure for global capitalism to dig up and sell to us for profit,
bring cultural and ecological destruction to Colombia and continuing
America's unsustainable petroleum dependence.

Don Smith Moorman
Springfield