Timeline of interesting events in the year 1997
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Sen. Joe Biden became a ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee SFRC, a standing committee of the U.S. Senate leading foreign policy legislation and debate in the Senate. The SFRC oversees the funding of foreign aid programs, arm sales to national allies, international treaty negotiations, and diplomatic nominations. BIDEN’s membership came at a critical time for China, when it applied to join the World Trade Organization WTO. During China’s application, BIDEN supported free-trade legislation that helped China join the WTO. Also relative to USAID:
"In the late 1990’s, Chairman Jesse Helms of North Carolina, and the Committee’s Ranking Member, Senator Joseph R. Biden, Jr. of Delaware, together secured enactment of landmark legislation to fundamentally reform the U.S. foreign policy institutions for the post-Cold War world—shutting down two obsolete federal agencies (United States Information Agency (USIA) and Arms Control and Disarmament Agency ACDA)) and merging their functions into the Department of State and bringing a third (United States Agency for International Development (USAID)) under the direct control of the Secretary of State."
Madeline Albright was Secretary of State from 1997-2001, and USAID was moved over to State in 1998.
Also this year, Smartmatic was founded in Venezuela by a team of three engineers – Antonio Mugica, Alfredo José Anzola, and Roger Piñate, specializing in the design and end-to-end deployment of technology solutions for specific applications. They work in electronic voting systems, smart city solutions (including public safety and public transportation), identity management systems for civil registration, and authentication products for government applications.
Also this year, American Information Services acquired Election Services Division of Business Records Corporation, and reincorporated as Election Systems & Software, Inc. Also, Global Election Systems, Inc. acquired I-Mark Systems. Also, Sequoia obtained IP rights to Optech ballot scanners from Election Systems & Software (ES&S).
January 5, 1997: A handwritten entry in the flight logs shows a trip Donald Trump took from the Palm Beach International Airport to the Newark Liberty International Airport, listing the model of the plane as a Gulfstream II, under the tail number N908JE, which was Jeffrey Epstein's. The other named passengers, were the Dubins (Glenn and wife), Jeffrey Epstein ("JE"), Ghislaine Maxwell ("GM"), Mark Epstein, and Didier (Cazaudumec?).
https://www.insider.com/donald-trump-jeffrey-epstein-flight-logs-unsealed-2019-8
January 11, 1997: Alan Dershowitz and possibly another Dershowitz (his wife?) flew on Jeffrey Epstein's plane from Newark, New Jersey, to Tucson, Arizona, with him, Celina Midelfart, and several other individuals.