The smear campaign

Along with its completely unsubstantiated charges of forced prostitution, the 20/20 smear crowd also made it a point to attack US House Rep. Tom DeLay, accusing him of “improperly” blocking federal attempts to “reform” the CNMI’s “corrupt system.” As part of its nefarious crusade to discredit the CNMI and portray it in the worst possible light, 20/20 enlisted the aid of a partisan labor and “human rights” swashbuckler, who agreed to go undercover and pose as a potential CNMI garment buyer.

The mark in this particular case was none other than Mr. Willie Tan, who, it later came out, assured our undercover labor swashbuckler that Tom DeLay will never allow our local economy to be destroyed. Mr. DeLay, Willie essentially maintained, will never allow our local self-government and our freedoms to be revoked.

Of course, this was not how 20/20 presented the facts. As 20/20 has it, Willie and company were in bed with Tom DeLay, in a corrupt attempt to maintain forced prostitution, sweatshops, and labor exploitation on US soil. This is what 20/20, George Miller, the US Interior Department and the US textile labor unions want all of America to believe. They want to evade the very real issues of local self-government, democracy, free trade, and economic self-sufficiency, by diverting American attention toward the red herring–the false charges–of labor abuse and human rights violations.

The underlying assumptions here are extremely despicable. ABC’s 20/20 and their sordid ilk assume that we have no legitimate right to democratic representation–that we have no right to lobby the US Congress in our economic and political defense; and that any attempt to do so basically amounts to proof of corruption and guilt.

Apparently, according to 20/20, since our leaders are corrupt and incompetent, we are not worthy of democracy; we have forfeited our rights to liberty by depriving our guest workers of their rightful freedoms. Our critics have masterfully evaded and perverted the real issues.

In this particular instance, however, 20/20 has managed to wound two birds with one episode, because they probably would have gone after Tom DeLay anyway, since the American left regards him as a “dangerous Republican.” The liberal American press corps will do to Representative DeLay what they have done to Newt Gingrich–and they will not stop with Saipan.

Believe me, we will never see 20/20 enlist the aid of an undercover human rights advocate to meet with the US garment labor unions or US Congressman George Miller.

Imagine. US Garment union leader to undercover “human rights advocate”: Don’t worry, US Congressman George Miller will never let the CNMI garment industry survive; trust me, we will soon destroy them.

You will never see 20/20 report that George Miller has improperly advanced a CNMI federal takeover in a corrupt attempt to pay off his labor union lobbyists, cronies and constituents–at the expense of a weak, vulnerable and struggling young island democracy.56666