From: Paul..... <paul.....
Date: November 17, 2010 9:01:09 PM EST
In going through an old file recently I discovered a reference in a clipping from 1986 that jumped out at me. I wouldn't have reacted to the names at the time (although I would have a year or so later), because they didn't mean anything to me. However, it appears that I filed the article for reference without reading it, because it wasn't marked with underlinings and notes (an annoying habit I have).
Benjamin H. Freedman (1890-1984) was an anti-Communist, anti-Zionist Jew and convert to Roman Catholicism. He funded Conde McGinley's "notoriously anti-Semitic" magazine Common Sense and was otherwise active in righteous causes. Late J&E member Robert John included an acknowledgement of Freedman's assistance in providing material for his book Behind the Balfour Declaration (IHR, 1988). Jews routinely refer to Freedman as a "self-hating Jew."
Issa Nakhleh is (or was--I don't know if he's still alive) a longtime champion of the Palestinian cause, a Barnes Review board member, and author of Encyclopedia of the Palestine Problem.
So the two names jumped out at me. Here's the passage:
"If you are dealing in such intangibles as consulting and brokerage services, the courts argue, you must protect yourself with a written agreement. For industrial consultant Benjamin Freedman, that turned out to be a $2.05-million lesson.
Freedman had pitched David Fulton, an officer of Chemical Construction Corp., in New York City, on the idea of building a plant in Saudi Arabia to convert flared-off natural gas to fertilizer. The deal would be worth $41 million to Chemical, and, for acting as broker, Freedman would be entitled to a 5% fee. The two men met several times; Freedman brought his Syrian associate, Issa Nakhleh, into the deal, and Nakhleh negotiated directly with the Saudi government at Chemical's request. Chemical won the contract, and finished construction of the plant four years later, but refused to pay Freedman's fee. Despite interoffice memos signed by Fulton acknowledging that Freedman was involved in the transaction, Freedman lost his lawsuit to force Fulton to pay. There was no written agreement."
-"Let's Shake on That," INC. magazine, June 1986, 131.
Now, the question that immediately jumps into one's mind is whether organized Jewry (and Jews and Gentiles they'd have enlisted, including, probably, officers at Chemical, which saved a bundle by not paying) illegally stuck their nose into this private transaction in order to prevent $2 million from falling into Freedman's hands. That possibility strikes me as being enormous.
For sure it was Jewish judges who ruled against Freedman. It also turns out that Nakleh had to sue separately in an attempt to obtain his own 5% fee. Whether he was successful or not I don't know, but Jews would have had the same incentive to interfere in his case.
(Kevin, I'm cc'ing you because I know you are interested in and knowledgeable about Freedman, have written about him, reprinted some of his work, and posted an audio speech by him.)
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| show details Nov 18 (11 days ago) |
Texaco vs. Pennzoil case
Samuel Goldwyn said, "An oral contract is as good as the paper it's written on," but this is not always the case. For example, In 1984 after Getty Oil was sold to Pennzoil in a handshake deal, Texaco made a higher offer, and the company was sold to Texaco. Pennzoil filed a lawsuit alleging tortious interference with this oral contract, which the court upheld and awarded $11.1 billion in damages, later reduced to $9.1 billion, but increased again by interest and penalties.
J. Hugh Liedtke, 81, Oilman Who Bested Texaco in Court
Published: April 01, 2003
J. Hugh Liedtke, the longtime head of the Pennzoil Company who began his career by drilling scores of consecutive successful oil wells with his partner, George H. W. Bush, and went on to win billions of dollars from Texaco in a dramatic legal battle, died on Friday in Houston. He was 81.
His son Blake said that he had suffered from several maladies for a long time.
Mr. Liedtke was a leading member of a generation of Texas oilmen who turned their jackpots from wildcat wells into large public companies. Like his fellow oilman, T. Boone Pickens, his specialty was buying assets for less than he thought they were worth and repackaging them to make them more attractive to investors.
Early in his career, he engineered one of the first major hostile takeovers when Pennzoil acquired the United Gas Pipeline Company, which was nearly eight times the size of Pennzoil. It was described at the time as a minnow swallowing a whale.
But his biggest triumph came in the courtroom where his legal team convinced a jury in 1988 that Texaco had illegally usurped his handshake deal to acquire an interest in the Getty Oil Company. He ended up with $3 billion that he used to acquire Chevron stock, only to trade that back to the company for lucrative oil and gas properties.
He had earlier turned down a $2 billion settlement offer from Texaco, causing Fortune magazine to ask him if he was the greediest man in the world or needed psychiatric help.
''Maybe both,'' he answered in the slow, gravelly voice that perhaps deliberately belied his extensive education. He then showed his famous teeth, saying he was prepared to wait for years for more money.
''Maybe now we should sit back a while and see how they like bankruptcy,'' he told Fortune. Texaco was indeed forced to seek bankruptcy protection.
When he finally got the $3 billion that he considered adequate from Texaco, Mr. Liedtke celebrated with a double cheeseburger and two bottles of beer at a Houston hamburger emporium he favored.
John Hugh Liedtke was born on Feb. 10, 1922, in Tulsa, where his father was a lawyer for the Gulf Oil Corporation. He majored in philosophy and won departmental honors at Amherst College. His thesis was titled ''Religion and the Limits of Knowledge in the Philosophies of Hume, Santayana and Dewey,'' according to the book ''Oil and Honor: The Texaco-Pennzoil Wars'' by Thomas Petzinger Jr. (Beard Books, 1999).
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| show details Nov 18 (11 days ago) |
From: Michael <RePorterNoteBook@Gmail.com>
To: reportersnotebook <RePortersNoteBook@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Thu, 18 November, 2010 6:07:28
Subject: Benjamin H. Freedman
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