Jesse Helms: The Old Bible Toting "Red-Slayer," Shafts American War Veterans Again

By Ted Sampley
The U.S. Veteran Dispatch
Sept./Oct./Nov. 1997

Jesse Helms, known in North Carolina as a Christian lawmaker and a patriot ever ready and willing to pour the U.S. military into a fight against the evil forces of the world, has stiffed chemically exposed Gulf War veterans to appease his special interest friends.

In September, Helms used his influence as chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee to make sure that at least seven of his big tobacco pals were placed at the head of the money line by knocking Gulf War veterans out of the running for claims against $1.3 billion in Iraqi funds frozen in American banks.

By revising a Senate Foreign Relations Bill, Helms kicked the vets off the claims list, virtually guaranteeing that the tobacco interests and other private corporations would not have to face competition from the veterans who had become sick as a result of exposure to chemical weapons during the war with Iraq.

Documents found at the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission of the U.S. Justice Department, which will administer the claims once the legislation is finally passed and signed by President Bill Clinton, show the tobacco firms that have submitted claims against the $1.3 billion are: RJ Reynolds; Brown and Williamson; James Miller; Transcontinental Leaf; Universal Leaf Tobacco; Dimon; and Standard Commercial.

Last year, Helms coldly blew off a "no trade with Vietnam" campaign promise he had made to Vietnam veterans and the families of Vietnam POW/MIAs (prisoners of war and missing in action) when he helped open the door to Vietnam trade for the same tobacco giants.

Gulf War Vets Condemn Helms Betrayal

The Gulf War Veterans this year, like their Vietnam veteran brothers did last year, expressed outrage at Helms' betrayal.

Houston lawyer Gary Pitts characterized the revised bill as a "grotesque injustice." Pitts, representing several hundred Gulf War vets in a class action suit against big global chemical firms who supplied Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, said: "To cut out courageous Gulf War veterans who have been ill since the war, and to reward instead the somewhat ignoble profits of the tobacco industry, would be something our country would be ashamed of."

"We take exception to putting business claims ahead of the veterans," said Veterans of Foreign Wars spokesman Bill Smith. "We're greatly offended by any move to disenfranchise vets from such a claim. They made sacrifices in the Gulf War and should be given top priority."

Representing more than two dozen grass-roots veterans groups, National Gulf War Resource

Center Director Paul Sullivan called Helms' effort a "sleight-of-hand" that wipes out vets' rights to file claims in equal standing.

"Many have had their government claims denied, and the Pentagon has denied for five years that anyone was exposed to chemicals while these guys twisted in the wind," he said. "This pool of money could alleviate a lot of suffering while their claims are pending, and this is like having the rug swept out from under you."

Helms, whose re-election campaigns have been heavily dependent on tobacco money, refused comment to the U.S. Veteran Dispatch when questioned about his preference for corporate interests over his constituents.

The Foreign Relations Authorization Act, which kicked the veterans out of the way, also puts taxpayers at the back of the line by pushing to the rear the public interest claims of U.S. government agencies.

The Agriculture Department's Commodity Credit Corporation was ripped off for almost $2.5 billion by Saddam's government after the CCC made export guarantees to farmers who shipped grain and other commodities to Iraq before the war.

Because of Helms' back room legislation, the tobacco companies will get their money first. Behind them will come the CCC, which is the government entity with by far the lion's share of non-war related government claims against Iraq, according to Agriculture Department lawyer Peter Bonner, who monitors the Iraqi claims effort for his agency. "This puts us at the end of the food chain behind all the private companies," said Bonner.

The FCSC will not release the total tobacco claims - details are kept confidential by the commission when a claimant requests - but the amount is "big bucks" according to one Justice Department official who asked not to be identified.

A spokesman for Standard Commercial Corp., of Wilson, N.C., for example, said its claim totals $12 million.

After the Gulf War ended, a U.N. Compensation Commission was set up to take claims directly related to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait and the resulting war. The only Gulf War vets eligible at the time were prisoners of war mistreated under Geneva Convention rules.

President Clinton, wanting to provide opportunity for additional compensation, decided veterans should be eligible for money from Iraqi assets frozen in the United States, and sent legislation to do that to Capitol Hill in 1993 and again in 1995.

Last year, Attorney General Janet Reno - anticipating congressional passage that never came - established a Registry for Claims Against Iraq, including veterans. More than 3,600 gulf war vets signed on. The FCSC still awaits instruction from Congress.

"Our concern is that something is done," federal claims commission chairwoman Delissa Ridgway said. "The money is sitting there. It's been sitting there for a long time. These claims are aging. Evidence disappears. Witnesses move on. Documents get tossed. You can't find people anymore. Nobody's getting anything. That, in our view, is not a good thing for justice. The longer they languish, the more difficult it is to adjudicate."

The only veterans qualified under language agreed to recently by House and Senate conferees are the injured survivors of Iraq's 1987 missile attack upon the frigate USS Stark. Families of the 37 sailors who died in that "accidental" Iraqi attack already had been given $27.3 million in compensation by Iraq before the Gulf War.

Helms Betrayed Vietnam Veterans

Helms' betrayal of Vietnam veterans in favor of corporate interests became apparent when, in March 1996, he welcomed Vietnam's charge d'affaires, Le Van Bang, to North Carolina.

With Le Bang standing cozily at his side, Helms shocked the veterans when he proclaimed to the press that communist Vietnam is a welcome "economic partner" for North Carolina.

Helms rolled out the red carpet for the communist leader, beginning with a visit to the hightech Research Triangle Park and a tobacco plant, followed by dinner at the governor's mansion and a visit to Helms' coveted nonprofit Jesse Helms Center at Wingate University near Charlotte, N.C.

The former "Red hater" Helms added frosting to his love feast with the communists by a further betrayal of Vietnam veterans in May of 1997 when he refused to prevent the posting of a U.S. ambassador to Vietnam. He had promised the POW/MIA families and Vietnam veterans he would "never" allow normal ties with Vietnam until Hanoi had made an "honest and full" accounting of U.S. servicemen missing in Vietnam.

Despite pleas from veterans and POW/MIA family members for Helms to hold back the posting of a U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam, Helms, instead, served corporate tobacco interests by allowing the appointment of Clinton's hand picked ambassador to sail through the Foreign Relations Committee unchallenged.

Helms' tobacco buddies, like R.J. Reynolds International, Inc., needed diplomatic and U.S. tax guaranteed insurance protection of their investments in Vietnam which could be provided only after the exchange of ambassadors between the United States and Vietnam.

Helms Sold Out Tobacco Farmer Constituents

RJR, anticipating more rigid U.S. government regulation of tobacco, has for several years been quietly building impressive cigarette production and manufacturing facilities in Vietnam.

To that end, RJR has already spent more than $21 million contracting for Vietnamese grown tobacco and building manufacturing plants. RJR and other tobacco giants are moving to Vietnam to take full advantage of its twenty cent an hour slave labor.

Helms has refused to answer written requests from The U.S. Veteran Dispatch for an explanation of how his support of RJR's growing and manufacture of tobacco products in Vietnam will help the embattled tobacco farmers in the United States.

When reporters pressed Helms about whether the United States might be exporting more jobs than products, he answered, "The more we export, the more people we can employ. We live in this world. We have to participate in the affairs of the world."

When asked about complaints of religious persecution and human rights violations in Vietnam (One example of such is the case of an American citizen visiting Vietnam this year who ended up in jail for giving away pens engraved with the Christian sign of the cross. She was later freed and evicted from Vietnam.), Helms quipped, "The best way to handle that is to get to know one another and have communication."

This never before seen in public behavior of Helms appears to revolve around his unquenched thirst for contributions, both political and private.

News reports say that aside from the hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations Helms accepted from political action committees, he also accepted a whopping $750,000 from RJR for the Jesse Helms Center.

The Jesse Helms Center also received at least $325,000 in contributions from foreign governments, $225,000 of which came from the government of Taiwan, the number one investor in Vietnam with $3.6 billion invested. Taiwan, along with Red China and Vietnam, is accused of making illegal contributions to the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and to President Clinton.

Helms Accepts China Related Contributions

Soon after Helms inherited the chairmanship of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Commit

tee in 1995, mega contributions began pouring into the Helms political machine from a virtual who's who of corporations lobbying to expand and protect their business interests in Vietnam and China.

R.J. Reynolds Tobacco, First Union Corp., Glaxo Wellcome, Citibank, AT&T, Federal Express, CocaCola, etc, all are associated with political lobbying to write off the POW/MIAs, removing them as an obstacle to full trade and diplomatic relations with Hanoi.

First Union Corp. of Charlotte, N.C. and First Factors of High Point, N.C. gave at least $183,000 in soft money to the North Carolina Republican Party and $7,500 to the Helms for Senate Campaign.

First Factor is a subsidiary of First Union, which is in a partnership with Lippo Group and the Red Chineseowned Hong Kong Chinese Bank.

The First Union/Lippo/Hong Kong Chinese Bank partnership has millions invested in Vietnam.

Lippo, a family controlled banking conglomerate of "overseas Chinese," is the subject of Senate hearings and investigations. It is suspected of being a conduit by which Red Chinese intelligence agents gained access to the White House with millions of dollars in illegal contributions to President Clinton and the Democratic Party.

Red China's antidemocratic thug government is rapidly emerging economically and militarily as a potential lethal world power. It has literally billions of dollars — earned in lopsided trade deals with the United States — to buy American political influence and the latest military hardware which is being aimed directly at American servicemen.

Helms Mum About Red Money

Helms is not saying anything about the contributions he received from the First Union/Lippo/Hong Kong Chinese Bank partnership or the Red Chinese penetration of the Clinton White House and the Democratic Party.

Helms' about-face to embrace the Reds — the same communist "demons" he had made a political career out of exposing as "ruthless, godless, brutal, and atheistic" — underscores the thinness of his patriotic veneer and pretense of virtue.

Super patriot Helms, who in the past has never had any qualms about evoking a Biblical verse to justify throwing American servicemen against communists and Third World dictators, has backslid.

"Cousin Jesse" (as he is affectionately known in North Carolina) has joined the legions of the greedy and is marching lock step with the same demons he once loved to loath. He has fallen to the dark side with those whose conscienceless lust for money and power is jeopardizing the lives of our children by betraying the national security of the United States.