Feeding the Beast

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No administration of the twentieth century can challenge Ronald Reagan's record for corruption. The number of indictments and prosecutions of its officials makes even Warren Harding's appear relatively benign. Among these scandals it is the Wedtech affair, Reagan's own Teapot Dome, that emerges as the worst.
In her fascinating and occasionally hilarious re-creation of the scandal, award-winning author Marilyn Thompson shows how Wedtech epitomizes not only the era's blatant greed and criminality, but its mindless ironies. We witness President Reagan himself hailing Wedtech president, school dropout, born-again Christian John Mariotta in the White House as a "hero of the '80s." Vice-President Bush reinforced Reagan's gaffe at a White House dinner by naming Mariotta as "the nation's Hispanic businessman of the year."
What Mariotta and his fellow crooks had accomplished was massive Federal funding through bribery and fraud. They parlayed a Bronx garage into... Tovább

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>$31.SDINCANADA >i!25-SD
No administration of the twentieth century can challenge Ronald Reagan's record for corruption. The number of indictments and prosecutions of its officials makes even Warren Harding's appear relatively benign. Among these scandals it is the Wedtech affair, Reagan's own Teapot Dome, that emerges as the worst.
In her fascinating and occasionally hilarious re-creation of the scandal, award-winning author Marilyn Thompson shows how Wedtech epitomizes not only the era's blatant greed and criminality, but its mindless ironies. We witness President Reagan himself hailing Wedtech president, school dropout, born-again Christian John Mariotta in the White House as a "hero of the '80s." Vice-President Bush reinforced Reagan's gaffe at a White House dinner by naming Mariotta as "the nation's Hispanic businessman of the year."
What Mariotta and his fellow crooks had accomplished was massive Federal funding through bribery and fraud. They parlayed a Bronx garage into a bigshot "defense supplier." Using reformed drug addicts and minority unemployed, Wedtech sidestepped qualifying criteria for Department of Defense contracts. These deals made millionaires of its principals and supporters. The latter featured such worthies on-the-take as Congressmen Mario Biaggi and Robert Garcia; Bronx Borough President Stanley Simon; bigamist National Guard General Vito Castellano; and most notably E. Robert Wallach, former Attorney General Ed Meese's intimate pal and counselor, now in the slammer for a six-year term. Indeed, Wedtech flourished under Meese's benevolent if carefully indirect aegis, no paltry matter given Meese's position as Reagan's top law and justice official.
As the investigative reporter who first exposed Wedtech in the New York Daily News,
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Marilyn Thompson details this engrossing story, including how prosecutors James McKay and Rudolph Giuliani have succeeded in dispatching some twenty-five Wedtechers to prison. She discloses that top Wedtech crook Fred Neuberger, the operations officer, even discussed having President Mariotta murdered.
Addictive reading. Feeding the Beast is indispensable for an understanding of the 1980s and the special character of the Reagan epoch.
Marilyn Walser Thompson was born in Salisbury, North Carolina, and began her journalism career with the Columbia Record in South Carolina. She also worked as an investigative reporter at the Philadelphia Daily Neivs and the New York Dailj News. She lives in Washington, D.C., and is a reporter for the Washington Post.
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FEEDING THE BE
'Marilyn Thom|fööh is the Ida Tárbeli of the 199ps -^ Marian e^^
the beast tha^ ate the^^outli BroÉpc—Wedtech and its politicianjl—
the way Tarbell took apart the oil tniats. Her Feeding the Bet^t islan
indispensable book for every citizen and voter^" —jack lS|fewfield
j Í Auth<^/C4]iHiimis
'As a superb reporter, Marilyn Thompson did more to uncpver the Wedtech disgrace than all the journalists and prosecutes put together/' ^^ —E Oilman |pencer
Editor The Denver Post
"Marilyn Thompson is a terrific reporter who not surprisingly; has
produced a terrific report on a multi-million-dollar scam that began
in a Bronx neighborhood and reached into the corridorsl of the
White House." ' ' ^ —James f^llse
i" . -Editor
¦ I The Dmlj News
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