Most Americans are familiar with the failure of the Enron Corporation. Enron was an American energy company based out of Houston, Texas. In 2000, Enron was one of the largest businesses in the world. They had working operations in many areas, mainly electricity, natural gas, communications and pulp and paper. Amazingly, Enron claimed revenues of nearly $101 billion in 2000. The problems for Enron started from the beginning, when a group of executives in the company began misleading the board of directors and audit committee. They did this by hiding billions of dollars in debt, acquired from failed deals and projects. In the months following 9/11, the illegal activity caught up with Enron and the company failed. Enron stock holders lost nearly $11 billion, and the resulting scandal marked the largest bankruptcy reorganization in American history at that time.
The Enron scandal ended the business career of accounting firm Arthur Andersen. Arthur Andersen Corporation was found guilty of unlawful practice in the auditing of Enron. In October of 2001, one month after the attacks in New York and Washington, details of the Enron scandal were leaked to the world press. The story sparked a panic among Enron stock holders, and by December 2, 2001, Enron Corp. filed for one of the largest corporate bankruptcies in US history, with assets of $63.4 billion. Because of the failure, new regulations and legislation were enacted to expand the reliability of financial reporting for public companies. Many conspiracy theories have been formed around the Enron Scandal, and the date on which it was revealed to the public. Most of these claims document the ties between former Texas Governor George W. Bush and Enron founder Kenneth Lay.
In 1972, thousands of official and unofficial FBI records were destroyed, upon the death of J. Edgar Hoover. In fact, in the past it was common practice for high ranking officials to destroy their most important business documents. For this reason, in 1974 the US Congress passed the Presidential Recordings and Materials Preservation Act, placing the presidential records of Richard Nixon in federal custody to prevent their destruction. The Act was meant to reduce secrecy at the highest levels of government, and to give historians the materials they need to perform their duties. The Presidential Records Act of 1978 expanded such protection of historical records. This was accomplished by mandating that all records of former presidents automatically become the property of the federal government upon leaving the Oval Office.
The presidential papers of Ronald Reagan and Vice President George Bush were due to be made public when George W. Bush took office in January, 2001. However, George W. Bush first delayed the release for 90 days, and then repeated the action, pushing the date back into September, 2001. On November 1, 2001, Bush issued Executive Order 13233, limiting public access to the records of former U.S. presidents. The Bush executive order also includes the documents of former vice presidents. Many people were critical of this action, claiming that it violated both the “spirit and letter of existing US laws.” The order severely curtailed public access to presidential records and added to delays in obtaining materials from presidential libraries. On January 21, 2009, Executive Order 13233 was revoked, by executive order of President Barack Obama on his first day in office. Obama essentially restored the original Executive Order 12667.
During his presidency, George W. Bush was accused of acting in violation of the Presidential Records Act of 1978. In 2007, the Bush White House e-mail controversy was revealed. The event started when George W. Bush initiated the unprecedented midterm dismissal of seven United States Attorneys, on December 7, 2006. The U.S. attorneys were replaced with interim appointees, under provisions in the 2005 USA PATRIOT Act reauthorization. Following the action, a congressional request was called looking for documents indicating why the attorneys were fired. This caused the Bush administration to reveal the fact that not all internal White House emails were available, because they were sent via a non-government domain, that was hosted on an e-mail server not controlled by the federal government. In 2009, it was announced that as many as 22 million emails may have been deleted by the Bush administration.
Hurricane Erin was the first, and longest lived, hurricane in the 2001 Atlantic hurricane season. The storm developed from a tropical wave on September 1, 2001, and by September 9 it strengthened into a full blown hurricane. Hurricane Erin passed within 100 miles of Bermuda, and created nasty weather and rip currents along the East Coast of the United States. On September 11, Erin decelerated as it turned to the east, but the hurricane would gain power over Canada and not dissipate until September 15. It is an interesting story because many flights and air traffic control workers were directly affected by Hurricane Erin. The storm produced 6 foot swells off the coast of North Carolina.
The second hurricane of the 2001 season struck on September 12, 2001. The storm is named Hurricane Felix and it originated 1,500 miles (2414 km) south of the Azores. Felix did not impact land, but caused weather problems for boats and aircraft. Hurricane Gabrielle was the third hurricane recorded during the 2001 Atlantic hurricane season. The storm developed on September 11, 2001, in the southeastern Gulf of Mexico. By September 13, Gabrielle intensified and accelerated northeastward toward Venice, Florida. On September 14, the storm made landfall near Venice, Florida, and was soon categorized as a hurricane. Hurricane Gabrielle caused heavy rainfall and bad weather conditions in Florida, Alabama, Bermuda and Canada. Three people were reported to have died in the storm, and it caused $230 million in damages. It is truly unfortunate that the September 11th terrorist attacks fell in line with a string of high powered hurricanes.
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