Stanford acquired over 120 acres of prime land from the previous Antigua and Barbuda government of Prime Minister Lester Bird. Since Bird's Antigua Labour Party government was ejected from office by the United Progressive Party of current Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer, Stanford, who reportedly gave Bird a half million dollars in bribes, has been attacking Spencer, even his his home constituency. For an American citizen to inject himself into the affairs of a sovereign nation is a throwback to the banana and gunboat diplomacy of the United States in the 1920s and 30s.
Notably, under Bird, Antigua and Barbuda became a domain for Russian-Israeli mafia money laundering and dodgy Internet casino gambling.
Stanford has purchased all the land around V C Bird International Airport, including the airport parking lot, thus holding the government plan's to modernize and expand the airport hostage. The ownership of Stanford's airline company, Caribbean Star and Caribbean Sun Airlines, is evenly split between him and the cash-strapped Leeward Islands Air Transport (LIAT). It is expected that Stanford will soon try to buy the LIAT shares and become sole owner of the airline.
Stanford is also attempting to acquire the Crabbs Peninsular area for a gated community for the super rich. Initial membership in the community is reportedly $3 million with an annual membership fee of $1 million. The homes are only leased to tenants, not owned by them, according to our Antigua sources.
Stanford has also banned his employees from belonging to unions. He claims he pays them enough without the need for union membership. Antiguan and Barbudan commentators have said that Stanford expects the people of the islands to just sing their calypso songs and dance their jigs like good little blacks and leave the financial decisions to him and his business colleagues.
Billionaire Texan re-colonizing Antigua and Barbuda.
With such an anti-union, ultra-capitalist marauder staking ownership of an Afro-Caribbean independent nation, it is noteworthy to note the Democrats and Democratic organizations to which Stanford has contributed: the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee/non-Federal Unicorp Association, former Texas Rep. Martin Frost's Lone Star Fund PAC, Washington Sen. Patty Murray, Texas Rep. Charlie Gonzalez (shame on him -- his father, the late House Banking Committee Chairman Henry Gonzalez strongly criticized the covert off-shore financial activities of people like Stanford), New York House candidate Dan Maffei, former Texas Rep. Max Sandlin, Montana Sen. Max Baucus, Washington Sen. Maria Cantwell, Rhode Island Sen. Jack Reed, former Missouri Sen. Jean Carnahan, New York Sen. Charles Schumer, Florida Sen. Bill Nelson, former Texas Rep. Martin Frost, and Texas House candidate Ken Bentsen.
When will these Democrats return these contributions and apologize to the people of Antigua and Barbuda? Democratic incumbents who received Stanford money should make amends and take action to restrict the unsavory actions of wealthy Americans in interference in the politics of other nations.
It is no surprise that someone like Stanford has donated generously to the GOP, a racist and anti-union party. Republicans who have benefited from Stanford's largesse include Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison's KPAC, Texas Sen. John Cornyn, Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby, former Texas Sen. Phil Gramm, former Ohio Rep. Bob Ney (now in federal prison), National Republican Congressional Committee, and Tom Delay's Americans for a Republican Majority (ARMPAC).
March 4, 2007 -- The U.S. ambassador who has permitted "Sir" R. Allen Stanford, a billionaire Texan, to run roughshod over the government and people of Antigua and Barbuda, as reported here yesterday, is Mary Ourisman, U.S. ambassador to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean States, including Antigua and Barbuda. Like Stanford, Ourisman is a native Texan and friend of Laura Bush who has been a professional board member in Washington, DC -- Beltway "code" meaning that she has never actually worked for a living. As U.S. ambassador accredited to the Caribbean states, Ourisman is apparently more concerned with allowing billionaire friends of George Bush to buy up the islands under her diplomatic jurisdiction. Ourisman and her husband, Mandell ("Mandy') Ourisman, a multi-millionaire Maryland automobile dealer who has homes in Washington, Jamaica, and Palm Beach, have donated over $443,630 to GOP coffers. Mary Ourisman served as the development director of the Republican GOPAC political action committee.
We were informed by our sources in Antigua and Barbuda that the sole radio station there read on the air our March 3-4 report about Stanford. Hopefully, our own U.S. Senate and House will take notice of the Ourisman-Stanford Texas axis of business interests to conduct a full investigation of U.S. policies in the Eastern Caribbean.
U.S. ambassador to Antigua and Barbuda Mary Ourisman, a professional Washington, DC board member.
Ourisman's "foreign policy" credentials includes serving on the Board of Directors of Blair House (the president's Guest House across from the White House) and its Decorating Committee, the Board of Trustees of the Washington National Opera, National Board of Directors of the Smithsonian Institution (where she organized tours to China, Cambodia, Panama, and the Galapagos Islands), and Board of Trustees of the Kennedy Center. She is a patron of the Prince of Wales Foundation, Venetian Heritage, the Preservation Society of Palm Beach, and the Four Arts Society of Palm Beach.
"IN TIMES OF UNIVERSAL DECEIT, TELLING THE TRUTH WILL BE A REVOLUTIONARY ACT." - George Orwell
