WP: U.S. Says Abramoff Tipped Tyco to GSA Move

[PhilipShore]

Washington Post
By Susan Schmidt and James V. Grimaldi
January 28, 2006

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/27/AR2006012701685.html

Lobbyist Jack Abramoff gave his client Tyco International an early warning in 2003 that the government was about to suspend Tyco's federal contracts -- inside information he received from a General Services Administration official now under indictment, federal prosecutors alleged yesterday.

David H. Safavian, who has been charged with obstructing the Abramoff corruption investigation, alerted Abramoff in November 2003 that the GSA was about to suspend the contracts of four Tyco subsidiaries, prosecutors said in court papers. Safavian provided "sensitive and confidential information" about internal GSA deliberations, as well as advice about how to get around the suspension, the prosecutors said.

Abramoff has pleaded guilty to fraud and conspiracy and is cooperating with a federal investigation into political corruption. He has been accused of improperly obtaining inside information from contacts in Congress and executive branch agencies.

[Straight Shooter]

1. Ooooh. Here it comes, dribble dribble dribble, leak, leak, leak ...

Batten the hatches, bushies, there's a flood a'comin' your way.

[ewoden]

2. this Abramoff guy is like lint under the bed. . .

It just keeps coming, and coming, and coming from who knows where.

This guy was into more shit than the RotoRooter man.


Hey I think FOX and CNN can kill two birds with one stone. All they need is a photoshopped picture of Abramoff having a few cold ones with that guy on the cruise ship.

[Pirate Smile]

3. This helps take the Abramoff scandal into the WH/Executive Branch.

It isn't just a Congressional scandal. Nope.

[DoYouEverWonder]

11. Abramoff is a Bush insider

that's a relatively small circle of people.

May the light of truth shine upon them.

[wordpix2]

13. yeah, how come M$M never reveals the fact he was on the * 2000 transition

team?

[rodeodance]

4. Bush :"General Services Administration official now under indictment,"

add to the cult of corruption.

[rodeodance]

5. "making false statements"--looks like a Martha Steward thing.

......Safavian, former GSA chief of staff, is to stand trial in April on charges of making false statements to investigators about a 2002 golf trip to Scotland with Abramoff.

Yesterday's filing said the government intends to use the Tyco information to show that Safavian had a motive to lie to government ethics officials about the nature of his relationship with Abramoff.

Barbara Van Gelder, Safavian's attorney, was critical of the filing. "This is really trash-talk trial tactics on the part of the government. It's designed to muddy David's reputation, to try to link him to other investigations. . . . It has no relevance at all to this case."

In the summer and fall of 2002, Safavian also guided Abramoff regarding a policy issue of interest to his tribal clients, who wanted to invest in the Old Post Office building in downtown Washington, according to charging papers filed with Safavian's indictment.

[ThoughtCriminal]

6. Reminder of Safavian's ties

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_H._Safavian

Ralph Reed
Grover Norquist
Abdurahman Alamoudi
Rep. Bob Ney
Sen. Jon Kyl
Rep. Chris Cannon

And let's not overlook that Safavian's wife Jennifer Safavian is chief counsel for oversight and investigations on the House Government Reform Committee.

[PhilipShore]

7. Wikipedia: Safavian...a fierce supporter of Hamas and Hezbollah

That same Wikipedia article-- possibly-- links Safavian to terrorism.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_H._Safavian

Safavian has been accused of working as a lobbyist for Abdurahman Alamoudi, a fierce supporter of Hamas and Hezbollah.

At his Senate confirmation hearing in April 2004, Safavian said that "To my knowledge, neither I nor Janus-Merritt did any work for Mr. Alamoudi." "I do not know why Mr. Alamoudi was erroneously listed in the client's lobby disclosure forms." More, "I do not believe Janus-Merritt received any funds from Mr. Alamoudi."

But, according to Senate disclosure reports on file, this was incorrect. For years Janus-Merritt registered as a lobbyist for Alamoudi. And then, on December 17, 2001, after Safavian had left the firm, Janus-Merritt resubmitted its disclosure forms. This time the name of Alamoudi had been replaced by the name of Dr. Jamal al Barzinji. Why the firm changed its registration is unknown.

...On March 20, 2002, Barzinji's home was raided by a federal task force investigating terrorist finances. A federal affidavit identifies Barzinji as the ringleader of a group suspected of aiding terrorists

[PhilipShore]

8. TalkLeft: Abramoff linked to Osama bin Laden's bank of choice

TalkLeft
Thursday :: September 22, 2005
Who Will Take the Fall With Abramoff?

http://talkleft.com/new_archives/012480.html

Shortly after 9/11, Abramoff signed up as a lobbyist for this consortium of banks that operate according to sharia, or Islamic law. According to the National Journal (Aug 31, 2002), the consortium was created after the attacks as President Bush began cracking down on terrorist financing. Abramoff's job was to spread the word about Islamic banking practices and to refute claims that Islamic banks sheltered money used for terrorist networks. And if anyone needed a good PR man, it was the chairman of the General Council for Islamic Banks, a Saudi businessman named Saleh Abdullah Kamel estimated to be worth in the neighborhood of $ 2.6 billion, who was quickly the subject of intense government scrutiny over his possible ties to terrorist activity.

You see, Kamel is also the chairman of Dallah al Baraka Group (DBG), which is suspected of having ties to al Qaeda and other extremist groups, and he was also the co-founder and large shareholder of Al Shamal Bank in Sudan, Osama bin Laden's bank of choice from 1983 onward. He was listed as being one of the seven "main individual sponsors of terrorism" in this report by French researcher Jean-Charles Brisard submitted to the UN Security Council in December 2002. (You might remember that Omar al-Bayoumi, who befriended and provided money to two of the 9/11 hijackers, was once an assistant to the Director of Finance for Dallah Avco, a DBG company that works with the Saudi aviation authority. And the WSJ has reported that the United States believes the Dallah al-Baraka Bank, another DBG company, was also used by al-Qaeda.)

Kamel's name also appeared in the "Golden Chain," a roster seized by Bosnian authorities in Sarajevo in March 2002 listing Saudi donors to bin Laden and his associates; and he was named as a defendant in two Sept. 11th related lawsuits: one filed by the victims' families in 2003 and another filed by Cantor Fitzgerald in September 2004 (Although claims of two plaintiffs from the first suit were dismissed, the same claims from other plaintiffs have yet to be.)

[wordpix2]

14. so Jackoff was lobbyist for terror financiers-can't wait to see how * is

linked to this

[DeepModem Mom]

9. kick

[0007]

10. Hmmmmm. Make another file folder and label it White House Scams

with Jack Abramoff.

[phoebe]

12. more here

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/22/AR2005092202204.html

snip

Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff bragged two years ago that he was in contact with White House political aide Karl Rove on behalf of a large, Bermuda-based corporation that wanted to avoid incurring some taxes and continue receiving federal contracts, according to a written statement by President Bush's nominee to be deputy attorney general.

Timothy E. Flanigan, general counsel for conglomerate Tyco International Ltd., said in a statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee last week that Abramoff's lobbying firm initially boasted that Abramoff could help Tyco fend off a special liability tax because he "had good relationships with members of Congress," including House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.).


Abramoff later said "he had contact with Mr. Karl Rove" about the issue, according to the statement by Flanigan, who oversaw Tyco's dealings with Abramoff and his firm and received reports from Abramoff about progress in the lobbying campaign. Flanigan's statement is the latest indication that Abramoff promoted himself as having ready access to senior officials in the Bush administration.


snip

Tyco -- whose executive L. Dennis Kozlowski had just departed under an ethics cloud -- was worried that the Bush administration might embrace legislation promoted by Democrats that would impose higher taxes on domestic-centered companies that had moved offshore to cut their tax bills. The legislation was motivated by popular anger over such offshore moves, and carried the additional penalty of barring such firms from receiving federal contracts.

Nice..