WP: Kerik's Surveillance Activity In Saudi Arabia Is Disputed

[kskiska]

Cabinet Pick Is Accused of Carrying Out Hospital Chief's Agenda

The autobiography of Bernard B. Kerik, President Bush's nominee to head the Department of Homeland Security, recounts a difficult time 20 years ago when he was expelled from Saudi Arabia amid a power struggle involving the head of a hospital complex where Kerik helped command a security staff.

In the book, Kerik described his discomfort at having to investigate employees' private lives, but said it was necessary because of the Saudis' laws prohibiting drinking and mingling of the sexes in public. "It was challenging, negotiating such a closed, rigid system and trying to find justice in laws that, to an American, were unjust," he wrote. He was expelled from Saudi Arabia in 1984, the book said, after he had a physical altercation with a Saudi secret police official who was interrogating him.

Since he was nominated last week to be homeland security secretary, however, nine former employees of the hospital have said that Kerik and his colleagues were carrying out the private agenda of the hospital's administrator, Nizar Feteih, and that the surveillance was intended to control people's private affairs. Feteih became embroiled in a scandal that centered in part on his use of the institution's security staff to track the private lives of several women with whom he was romantically involved, and men who came in contact with them, the ex-employees said.

Kerik, who as chief of investigations was considered third in command of the security staff, personally surveilled some employees and at times confronted them with the results, several former employees said. He also was a lead investigator in the controversial arrest, for drinking, of a physician who was detained and deported from Saudi Arabia for the crime.

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45175-2004Dec7.html

[lateo]

1. Kick'em when their up...

kick'em when their down...


We love dirty laundry!

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

2. No doubt...

Kerik has made some non-friends during his meteoric rise. Undoubtedly, it comes with the job of being a no-neck enforcer.

Perhaps some of these people will come forward and talk now, in their outrage.

[yardwork]

3. Is it possible that the thug might not get approved?

I am convinced that we haven't heard the tip of the iceberg about Bernard Kerik.

[nashville_brook]

4. holy crap

kicking it old school

[Rose Siding]

5. Mighty coincidental...

Bush's DHS choice has security experience with the Saudis. I knew he'd failed in Iraq recently, but I wasn't aware of this specialized previous experience.

[KoKo]

6. Shocking that Guiliani had so much influence with Chimp that this thug was

even considered. Have you read the New York Newsday reports about Kerik...ugh..

[wicket]

7. Man, this guy is just a lighting rod!

Scandals just keep popping up with him.

[reprobate]

10. Lightning rod? Oh, you mean bush, right? Agreed.

[Supersedeas]

8. investigating the private lives in order to enforce sex laws??

well, welcome to the U.S. Homeland security department...in fact, take the reins and go.

[PurityOfEssence]

9. The upper class has often found its Capos and enforcers from the lower

And Kerik, with a Dickensian childhood, just fits the bill to a t. Every step of his life brings forth ethical and legal questions as he curried favor with the powerful and acted as their muscle man. For Junior, who wants nothing but yes-men, he's a perfect addition. Couple it with the "tough-guy, man-of-the-people" crap, and it's a PR hoedown.

Proles who've been lifted from the underclass are the perfect functionaries: they'll do ANYTHING for the aristocrats.