White House Official Warned Abramoff

[Judi Lynn]

White House Official Warned Abramoff
Sunday, January 29, 2006
(01-29) 12:01 PST WASHINGTON, (AP) --

The Bush administration's former chief procurement official tipped off lobbyist Jack Abramoff that the government was about to suspend one of his clients from federal contracting, newly filed court papers say.

David Safavian provided "sensitive and confidential information" about Tyco International to Abramoff regarding internal deliberations at the General Services Administration, says the filing in the criminal case against Safavian. The data concerned four entities of Tyco.

After advising Abramoff about the internal deliberations in November 2003, Safavian then suggested to Abramoff what arguments Tyco should make when it appealed the suspension decision to GSA. The lobbyist subsequently passed the information on to Tyco officials, the court papers conclude.

Safavian faces trial on charges that he lied and obstructed investigations into whether he aided Abramoff in efforts to acquire GSA-controlled property around the nation's capital. He has pleaded innocent.
(snip/...)

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/01/29/national/w120152S55.DTL

[xchrom]

1. lol -- quite a network they have set up in the white house.

[Cronus Protagonist]

3. Yes, and this is business as usual so you know there's hundreds more

Hundreds more of these types of instances where government is transparent and helpful to corporations that break the law. Busdiness as usual in a culture of corruption, business as usual in a fascist administration.

[xchrom]

7. when your trying to get the corporate branch of government

firmly established in peoples minds -- you need a lot of messenger boys to keep everyone up to date.

this is the information age after all.

[Jackpine Radical]

4. Must have been really hard

keeping Bush in the dark about all that stuff.

[xchrom]

6. lol -- yeah -- didn't know kennyboy and doesn't know abramoff

yet...

[The Backlash Cometh]

9. Well, they didn't just pull it out of their ass.

These networks have existed forever. It's time to put sunshine on the machinations and end them once and for all. Because, and this is a warning, there are other cultures that are 100 times better at cronyism and nepotism than white male Americans. If you don't have the laws put in place to offset these imbalances, they will eventually get the upper hand in certain areas.

[Webster Green]

2. This guy is likely to be awarded the "Medal of Freedom"

He is doing a heck of a job.:rofl:

[sundancekid]

5. give him an electric chair right next to the insider trading geniuses at

repuke offices of delay, frist et al....

[maddezmom]

8. wow we've all known/suspected as much

but it's nice to see it in the WaP0. :)

K&R :thumbsup:

[robbedvoter]

10. Must've been...Martha. Or Ann Richards.

[RSchewe]

11. Haha. White House official? SAFAVIAN. What a deceptive headline...

With an article and a cast of characters like Abramoff, Safavian, and the Tyco crew, was that the best headline they could have come up with?

[Canuckistanian]

12. Tyco, Enron, Halliburton

Just look at the Bushco portfolio and you'll find the next corporate scandal.

[SoCalDem]

13. And yet, they would have us believe that Bush knows nothing

that goes on in DC, is responsible for nothing that happens under his watch, and everything bad that happens is somehow someone else's fault..

He sure sounds like an adolescent child..acts like one too..

[HuffleClaw]

14. next bush'll say he doesn't know HIM too

quick, someone find photos!

[rodeodance]

15. An Abramoff mole in the WH. love it--spead this wide.