>"Judge" Webster's History of Consorting with Mobsters, Union-busters and
>Corporate Criminals
>by Nathan Newman
>
>See original post at
>http://www.nathannewman.org/log/archives/000528.shtml#000528
>
>
>"Judge Webster", SEC head William Pitt's appointee to the new accounting
>oversight board, is about to suffer the worst fate of a "respected
>Washington insider"-- actually having what such insiders do looked at
>closely.
>
>And it's not a pretty sight.
>
>Along with the corporate board positions such as the one at U.S.
>Technologies that currently has him in trouble, he also managed to get
>appointment to the three-member government panel overseeing corruption in
>the Teamsters. Yet despite being paid $100,000 per year for the job, paid
>out of hardworking Teamsters dues, many feel, according to today's New York
>Times, that Webster has been doing very little to earn his money (see
>http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/05/business/05WEBS.html).
>
>And he's been consorting with the worst of the old corrupt Teamster leaders
>in that role. As even conservative columnist Bob Novak noted recently (see
>http://www.townhall.com/columnists/robertnovak/rn20010801.shtml):
>
>"Webster was honored May 11 at a New York Marriott Marquis Hotel dinner
>hosted by one of the most unsavory of old Teamsters, George Barasch. Webster
>addressed the Union Mutual Benefit Association (UMBA), which is charged in a
>Garment Workers Union (UNITE) lawsuit as draining millions from Barasch's
>Allied Trade Council (ATC) for his personal use. The IRB in November 1999
>charged that Barasch and his family were siphoning money from benefit plans
>of the ATC and the Barasch-controlled Teamsters Local 815. A lawyer in the
>UNITE lawsuit was recently told by Barasch's son, Stephen: 'Judge Webster
>seems to think we're OK.'"
>
>The Labor Party-- the prototype third party supported by major unions --
>condemned the board for allowing Webster to serve on the Teamsters oversight
>board, since he also had corporate positions with antiunion firms. Here from
>the Labor Party resolution this summer
>(http://www.owcinfo.org/campaign/ILWU/Resolution.htm):
>
>"WHEREAS the government's "Independent Review Board," established to oversee
>the Teamsters Union, has a conflict of interest in that William Webster, a
>former CIA and FBI director, who heads the board, also sits on the board of
>directors of Anheuser-Busch, which negotiates contracts with the Teamsters.
>In addition, Webster was on the board of the Pinkerton Security and
>Investigations Services, notorious in labor history for its strikebreaking."
>
>And Webster's involvement with NextWave, a telecom upstart that defaulted on
>billions owed to the F.C.C., leaves many establishment leaders appalled that
>he's allowed near corporate oversight (again from the NY Times):
>
>"NextWave was a "bottom feeder," said Gerald Faulhaber, a Wharton School
>professor who served as the F.C.C.'s top economist in 2000 and 2001. 'Do I
>feel comfortable with my watchdog being involved with these guys? No.'"
>
>Everyone may be claiming that Webster is a fine civil servant who just
>happens to consort with mobsters, corporate felons, and union-busters. But
>let's just say we should err on the safe side for a position entrusted with
>enforcing corporate responsibility.
>
>Fire his ass.
>
>
>