Are Kerik's Problems A Marker for Why Iraq Is Screwed Up?

[MrBenchley]

The saga of bad Bernie grows....how does someone with this many ethical and legal problems (including mob ties!) get a contract to train Iraq's police? And is that the reason why they're ineffectual and corrupt? And what about the rest of Bremer's incompetent menagerie...how thoroughly were they checked out?

Write your congresspeople. Questions need to be asked.

"Former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik accepted thousands of dollars in cash and gifts without making proper public disclosures, a Daily News investigation has revealed.
Kerik failed to report the gifts on financial disclosure forms he was required to file with the city as head of the both the NYPD and, before that, the Department of Correction.
The revelations come in the wake of Kerik's stunning announcement Friday night that he was withdrawing his nomination as President Bush's secretary of homeland security.
In a news conference outside his $1.2 million lakeside New Jersey home, Kerik insisted it was the nanny issue alone that led him to withdraw. "Based on that, and based on precedent, and really it was the most important that this was the right thing to do, I contacted the White House late afternoon and told them I would like to withdraw my name," Kerik said.
However, The News probe calls into question his conduct while holding two of the city's most important public offices."

http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/261266p-223749c.html

"When he headed the city's jails, Bernard Kerik became deeply entangled with a New Jersey construction company long under fire for its alleged mob ties, a Daily News investigation found.
Kerik's troubling connection to the company, Interstate Industrial, began in the fall of 1998, when the company held major city contracts, including one to cover the massive Fresh Kills landfill.
Kerik recommended his close friend, Lawrence Ray, for a job helping Interstate cope with mob-leery regulators here and in Atlantic City.
Based solely on Kerik calling Ray "a top-shelf guy," the New Jersey company hired Ray at $100,000 a year, according to a sworn deposition that Interstate owner, Frank DiTomasso, gave to city investigators in June 2000.
Shortly after hiring Ray, Interstate hired Kerik's brother, Don, to run a dirt and stone transfer station on Staten Island, DiTomasso told investigators.
The city Conflicts of Interest Board forbids city officials from using their offices to help relatives or those with whom they have financial relationships.
At the time, Ray and another Kerik pal had just finished bankrolling Kerik's wedding reception. The News requested an interview with Kerik on Dec. 2 to discuss Ray, Interstate and other issues. He never responded."

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/wn_report/story/261247p-223745c.html

"On Thursday, the day before he took his name from contention, Kerik, 49, was forced to testify in a civil lawsuit about an alleged affair with a subordinate.
The case, which involves Kerik's use of authority when he was city correction commissioner between 1998 and 2000 was brought against the city by a former deputy warden. Plaintiff Eric DeRavin III contends Kerik kept him from getting promoted because he had reprimanded the woman, Correction Officer Jeanette Pinero.
About halfway through Pinero's deposition on Tuesday, attorneys for the city began to raise the issue of having the depositions sealed, particularly the parts that concerned Kerik and Pinero's relationship, lawyers in the case said. On Wednesday, the lawyers requested and received a special hearing before Federal Magistrate Kevin Nathaniel Fox, where they requested that both transcripts be sealed.
DeRavin's attorney, Gregory Lisi, argued against the sealing, calling it a First Amendment issue."

http://www.nynewsday.com/news/local/newyork/politics/nyc-main1212,0,15283.story?coll=nyc-homepage-headlines

By the way, the guy who looked into whether Kerik would make a good Homeland Security Consigiliere, er, Chief? Attorney General designate Alberto Gonzalez....