Flanigan Withdraws Nomination at Justice

[maddezmom]

By MARK SHERMAN, Associated Press Writer
10 minutes ago



WASHINGTON - Timothy E. Flanigan has withdrawn as a nominee to be deputy attorney general amid a delay in his confirmation because of his dealings with indicted Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff, The Associated Press has learned.

Flanigan, a senior lawyer for Tyco International Ltd., wrote President Bush that he was withdrawing because of "uncertainty concerning the timing of my confirmation." The AP obtained a copy of the letter Friday.

He was nominated in May to be the No. 2 official at the Justice Department — Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' top deputy. It's a role he also held when Gonzales was White House counsel in Bush's first term. But Flanigan's nomination has been held up over questions about his connection to Abramoff.

Flanigan joined Tyco in 2002, after leaving the White House. He has told the Senate Judiciary Committee that Abramoff, subject of a federal investigation into his lobbying activities, began lobbying on behalf of Tyco in the spring of 2003 and bragged about his ties to then-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, and Karl Rove, Bush's top political aide.

more:http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20051007/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/bush_justice_nominee_1

[Stand and Fight]

1. Now let's hope Miers does the same...

:rofl:

[gratuitous]

2. Whoo freakin' hoo!

Flanigan might want to make sure, though, that his pals in the Justice Department don't forget his name too soon. He might need a favor or two in the months to come.

[Mist]

3. The bragging turns to skulking

Actually, I'm surprised he had the sensitivity and smarts to withdraw voluntarily. Not many in BUSH,INC. do.

[rodeodance]

4. maybe he just saw the writing on the wall/

[FlashHarry]

7. I doubt very much it was voluntary

BushCo™ yanked him, you can be sure. With all the talk of cronyism and corruption swirling around Foggy Bottom of late, the last thing they need is an Abramoff/Tyco guy up for questioning before Congress. Chalk another casualty up to the WH's vetting process...

[kainah]

5. due to testify next week

He was scheduled to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee next week about his dealings with Abramoff. I guess that prospect wasn't too welcoming.

[mom cat]

6. Be sure to tell Yahoo that you like this story.

[deminks]

8. Flanigan Withdraws Nomination at Justice

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20051007/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/bush_justice_nominee_1

WASHINGTON - Timothy E. Flanigan has withdrawn as a nominee to be deputy attorney general amid a delay in his confirmation because of his dealings with indicted Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff, The Associated Press has learned.

Flanigan, a senior lawyer for Tyco International Ltd., wrote President Bush that he was withdrawing because of "uncertainty concerning the timing of my confirmation." The AP obtained a copy of the letter Friday.

He was nominated in May to be the No. 2 official at the Justice Department — Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' top deputy. It's a role he also held when Gonzales was White House counsel in Bush's first term. But Flanigan's nomination has been held up over questions about his connection to Abramoff.

Lawmakers also have questioned Flanigan sharply about his role in crafting administration policy allowing aggressive interrogation techniques be used on detainees in Afghanistan and Iraq.

[williesgirl]

9. The criminals are getting their's - finally! Recommended. n/t

[struggle4progress]

10. Tyco lawyer withdraws nomination to Justice Department post

<snip> Flanigan also had received some criticism for his role while at the White House counsel's office in formulating legal advice that granted Bush broad leeway for harsh treatment of captured enemy combatants.

One outcome was a Justice Department memorandum, later repudiated after it became public, that found laws against torture prohibit only treatment on a par with causing "organ failure, impairment of bodily function, or even death."

At the time, Flanigan was second-in-command to then-White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales, who is now attorney general. <snip>

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/politics/12847374.htm

[Carolab]

11. Flanigan, Abramoff, Libby, Marc Rich & Khan. Connect those dots.

Right here:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cea-usa/message/8768

{snip}

Plame leak damaged a major CIA investigation linking senior Bush administration officials to WMD proliferation.

U.S. intelligence insiders have pointed out that the White House is using "Rovegate" and "Who in the White House said what to whom?" as a smoke screen to divert attention away from the actual counter-proliferation work Mrs. Wilson and her Brewster Jennings & Associates team were engaged in. The arrival of Timothy Flanigan as Patrick J. Fitzgerald's boss is likely related to the mountains of evidence Fitzgerald has now collected to indict senior White House officials, particularly, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, for criminal conspiracy in exposing a sensitive U.S. intelligence operation that was targeting some of their closest political and business associates. Libby, it will be recalled, was the attorney for fugitive global smuggler and multi-bilionaire Marc Rich, someone who has close ties to the Sharon government and Israeli intelligence. It is no coincidence that FBI translator-turned-whistleblower Sibel Edmonds uncovered nuclear material and narcotics trafficking involving Turkish intermediaries with ties to Israel at the same time Brewster Jennings and the CIA's Counter Proliferation Division was hot on the trail of nuclear proliferators tied to the Israeli government of Ariel Sharon and the A. Q. Khan network of Pakistan.

{snip}

An arrest in early 2004 points to the links between Israeli agents and Islamist groups bent on producing weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons. According to intelligence sources, this was a network that was a major focus of Edmonds' and Valerie Plame Wilson's work.

{snip}

It was during the summer of 2003, when Valerie Plame and her team -- at a critical stage of their investigation of the A. Q. Khan network -- were outed by White House officials Karl Rove, Scooter Libby, and at least one other individual (possibly Elliot Abrams), that Karni received an e-mail from his long time Pakistani associate Humayun Khan (no relation to A. Q. Khan) asking for 200 triggers to be sent to his Islamabad-based company, Pakland PME.

{snip}

However, what is clear is that an Israeli-based network, involving key neo-conservatives in the Bush adminstration, were attempting to speed up the clock on the delivery by the A. Q. Khan network of prohibited nuclear material to countries like Iran, thereby justifying a pre-emptive U.S. (and Israeli-supported) attack on Iranian nuclear installations. It was this network that attracted the attention of the CIA and when it realized some of the "men behind the curtain" were in the Pentagon, they had their smoking gun evidence of double dealing by Bush administration officials and their compatriots in the Sharon government.


{MORE AT LINK}

[AllyCat]

20. Another dot linking Tyco to Rover

http://money.cnn.com/2005/09/23/news/midcaps/tyco_abramoff/

[Carolab]

25. Good stuff. n/t

[norml]

12. Nominee for Justice job chooses to withdraw (Links to Jack Abramoff)

Oct. 8, 2005, 12:31AM

Nominee for Justice job chooses to withdraw
Some on panel planned to ask the lawyer about his links to lobbyist Jack Abramoff
By DAN EGGEN and R. JEFFREY SMITH
Washington Post

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration's choice for deputy attorney general has withdrawn his nomination amid mounting questions from Senate Democrats over his dealings with indicted Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff and over his role in shaping controversial interrogation policies.

Timothy Flanigan wrote President Bush on Thursday that he was dropping out as a candidate because of "uncertainty concerning the timing of my confirmation," which has been delayed several times since Bush nominated him in May.

But members of the Senate Judiciary Committee said they were surprised by Flanigan's decision, given that the panel had just scheduled a second hearing on Oct. 18 and agreed to vote on Flanigan Oct. 20.

If Flanigan had appeared to testify at a second hearing, he was likely to face additional questioning from Democrats in two areas of recent controversy: the administration's decision-making on the treatment of detainees in the war on terror and links between senior administration officials and Abramoff, who is the subject of a broad federal investigation of his lobbying activities and has been indicted on bank fraud charges in an unrelated case in Florida.


snip


http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/politics/3387316

[longship]

13. This is an important event.

Because of Gonzales recusal, this Deputy AG would be Patrick Fitzgerald's new boss. Since the sunset of the independent prosecutor law the position of any prosecutor investigating the executive branch is tenuous at best. Flanigan was considered to be a political hack. More than one person has suggested that upon his taking to office he might interfere with the Fitzgerald investigation of Rove/Plame. Flanigan's removing himself from consideration for this office preserves the status quo with respect to the investigation. That's very good news as Fitzgerald seems to be doing his job.

[Catrina]

17. Very good point

I wonder if all these indictments and arrests (the three murder suspects in the Abramoff case and the arrest of Safavian for lying about Tom Delay) and the Larry Franklin plea, the investigation of Frist and the questions about Hastert, all of which remove obstacles to those trying to catch all these criminals, are coincidences?

[DaveColorado]

14. You bastard

Haha, you had me thinking it was Miers for a second with that title.

:P

Well I hope Miers gets in there if this World Nut Daily article is true about her supporting gay rights:

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=46641

But then again it's World Nut Daily...

[norml]

16. On edit I've added more information to the thread headline

concerning the links to Jack Abramoff.

[Catrina]

15. Seems like the Abramoff fallout

has begun!! Who in the Republican party has not accepted something from Abramoff or Tom Delay.

The Congresswoman who was going to run against Sen. Byrd, has decided not to do so either. She has received money from Delay, although that is not the reason she gave.

This is going to be fun to watch ~ pretty soon there will be no Republican left who can stand up to public scrutiny as a result of their connections to either Bush, Delay or Abramoff!! :rofl:

[DanCa]

18. Do you think mike brown's failure caused all this scrutiny and that's why

everythings being brought out to the light?

[DrZeeLit]

19. I love this line: "uncertainty concerning the timing..." = "no distraction

at the moment, so I can't slip right into that slot."

Yeah, darn. Senators all looking for a scapegoat, paying attention (sort of), and no big storm, disease, white girl missing story, or suicide bomber in Pokepsie...

Actually, I sorta wish he would have continued with the process. Maybe we all would have learned a bit more about this sleezy racket.

[MGKrebs]

21. Pretty funny/sad. Connection with Abramoff is bad enough to

derail the nomination, but not the fact that he was probably hip deep in the Tyco scam?

Also, even though this nomination won't move forward, Bush has probably successfully sent the signal that he is very aware of Fitz's investigation, and will use any means to oppose him.

[peabody71]

22. Bush Justice Nominee Withdraws

Bush Justice Nominee Withdraws
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/100805A.shtml

The Bush administration's choice for deputy attorney general has
withdrawn his nomination amid mounting questions over his
dealings with indicted Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff and
over his role in shaping controversial interrogation policies.

[wndycty]

23. Wow. . .

. . .that can't be good for the White House.

[liberaliraqvet26]

24. this won't make the news anyway