{"article":{"id":52064,"heading":"Are the Democrats covering up Senator Feinstein's link to war profiteering?","author":"Duane J. Roberts","created":"2003-04-21 20:14:30","modified":"2003-04-21 23:05:49","last_modified":"Tue, 22 Apr 2003 07:05:49","article":"

Last week, messages were posted on the la.indymedia site

mentioning that Senator Dianne Feinstein's husband,

Richard C. Blum, owned about 200,000 shares of

preferred stock in the Perini Corporation, the

Boston-based construction and real estate development

firm that won a $100 million contract from the Bush

administration to do reconstruction work in Iraq.

Well, according to documents filed with the Securities

and Exchange Commission and information that can be

obtained from the biz.yahoo.com site, the San

Francisco investment banking firm that Mr. Blum runs,

Blum Capital Partners, L.P., has a \"controlling\"

interest in the Perini Corporation that is worth

somewhere around $32,145,151.

But what I find of even greater interest is the fact

that the New York Times published an article earlier

this month reporting that the Perini Corporation was

awarded its $100 million contract \"confidentially\" --

much in the same manner by which Bush administration

has been disbursing business to other companies it

enjoys a close relationship with:

For some of the reconstruction work in and

around Iraq, the United States Army Corps

of Engineers confidentially awarded a

one-year contract worth up to $100 million

on April 1 to the Perini Corporation,

which had revenue of barely $1 billion

last year. The agency released a brief

statement about the award on April 4,

but Perini did not receive clearance to

issue its own statement about the

significant chunk of business until

April 8. By then, its stock had climbed

more than 40 percent. (\"The Catch-22

Of Iraq Contracts,\" Diana B. Henriques,

April 12, 2003, New York Times)

Yet, Congressional Democrats who recently asked the

General Accounting Office to open up an investigation

into the way by which the Bush administration has been

handing out war contracts seem to have completely left

the Perini Corporation out of the scope of their

inquiry!

Do you suppose they don't want word to get out that a

firm controlled by the husband of a prominent

California Democratic Senator is making a money off

President George Bush's imperialist wars in the Middle East?

Or do you think the real reason why Congressional

Democrats are going after Bush on this issue is

because his administration isn't awarding enough war

contracts to firms owned or controlled by other

Democrats?

Sincerely,

Duane J. Roberts

duaneroberts92804@yahoo.com<\/a>



See http:\/\/biz.yahoo.com\/hd\/p\/pcr.html<\/a> for information

on top instutional holders of Perini Corporation

stock:

Top Institutional Holders Shares %Out* Value**

Blum Capital Partners,

L.P. 5,823,397 25.69 $32,145,151

American International

Group, Inc 4,705,882 20.76 $25,976,468



Gendell, Jeffrey L. 426,300 1.88 $2,353,176

Dimensional Fund Advisors

Inc 401,200 1.77 $2,214,624



Smith (Donald) & Company

Inc. 215,500 0.95 $1,189,560



Legg Mason Inc. 120,000 0.53 $662,400



Heartland Advisors Inc. 92,200 0.41 $508,944



Barclays Bank Plc 57,287 0.25 $316,224



Northern Trust Corporation 44,400 0.20 $245,088



Vanguard Group, Inc. (The) 42,880 0.19 $236,697



See the following URL for the recent SEC filing by the

Perini Corporation and scroll down:

http:\/\/www.sec.gov\/Archives\/edgar\/data\/77543\/000092701603001519\/dex99a1i.htm<\/a>

The following entities are or may be considered

persons controlling the Company:



Tutor-Saliba Corporation

15901 Olden Street

Sylmar, CA 91342

National Union Fire Insurance Company of Pittsburgh,

Pa.

70 Pine Street

New York, NY 10270



O&G Industries, Inc.

112 Wall Street

Torrington, CT 06790



BLUM Capital Partners, L.P.

909 Montgomery Street, Suite 400

San Francisco, CA 94133



PB Capital Partners, L.P.

909 Montgomery Street, Suite 400

San Francisco, CA 94133



The Common Fund for Non-Profit Organizations

c\/o BLUM Capital Partners, L.P.

909 Montgomery Street, Suite 400

San Francisco, CA 94133

The Union Labor Life Insurance Company

Separate Account P

111 Massachusetts Avenue, NW

Washington, DC 20001

I-2

<\/p>\n","contact":"duaneroberts92804@yahoo.com","link":"","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/plain","summary":"Why are Congressional Democrats silent about the Perini Corporation?","numcomment":1,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/","filesize":null,"article_url":"\/news\/2003\/04\/52064.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[{"id":52088,"heading":"Vote her OUT!","article":" Does she plan to run for reelection? ","author":"Ruth","parent_id":52064,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-04-21 23:05:49","modified":"2003-04-21 23:05:49","fileurl":""}]}