Kerry the FIRST lawmaker to go after terrorists and those who funded them.

[blm]

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2004/0409.sirota.html

Follow the Money
How John Kerry busted the terrorists' favorite bank.

By David Sirota and Jonathan Baskin
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Two decades ago, the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) was a highly respected financial titan. In 1987, when its subsidiary helped finance a deal involving Texas oilman George W. Bush, the bank appeared to be a reputable institution, with attractive branch offices, a traveler's check business, and a solid reputation for financing international trade. It had high-powered allies in Washington and boasted relationships with respected figures around the world.

All that changed in early 1988, when John Kerry, then a young senator from Massachusetts, decided to probe the finances of Latin American drug cartels. Over the next three years, Kerry fought against intense opposition from vested interests at home and abroad, from senior members of his own party; and from the Reagan and Bush administrations, none of whom were eager to see him succeed.

By the end, Kerry had helped dismantle a massive criminal enterprise and exposed the infrastructure of BCCI and its affiliated institutions, a web that law enforcement officials today acknowledge would become a model for international terrorist financing. As Kerry's investigation revealed in the late 1980s and early 1990s, BCCI was interested in more than just enriching its clients--it had a fundamentally anti-Western mission. Among the stated goals of its Pakistani founder were to "fight the evil influence of the West," and finance Muslim terrorist organizations. In retrospect, Kerry's investigation had uncovered an institution at the fulcrum of America's first great post-Cold War security challenge.


More than a decade later, Kerry is his party's nominee for president, and terrorist financing is anything but a back-burner issue. The Bush campaign has settled on a new strategy for attacking Kerry: Portray him as a do-nothing senator who's weak on fighting terrorism. "After 19 years in the Senate, he's had thousands of votes, but few signature achievements," President Bush charged recently at a campaign rally in Pittsburgh; spin that's been echoed by Bush's surrogates, conservative pundits, and mainstream reporters alike, and by a steady barrage of campaign ads suggesting that the one thing Kerry did do in Congress was prove he knew nothing about terrorism. Ridiculing the senator for not mentioning al Qaeda in his 1997 book on terrorism, one ad asks: "How can John Kerry win a war if he doesn't know the enemy?"
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But legislation is only one facet of a senator's record. As the BCCI investigation shows, Kerry developed a very different record of accomplishment--one often as vital, if not more so, than passage of bills. Kerry's probe didn't create any popular new governmental programs, reform the tax code, or eliminate bureaucratic waste and fraud. Instead, he shrewdly used the Senate's oversight powers to address the threat of terrorism well before it was in vogue, and dismantled a key terrorist weapon. In the process, observers saw a senator with tremendous fortitude, and a willingness to put the public good ahead of his own career. Those qualities might be hard to communicate to voters via one-line sound bites, but they would surely aid Kerry as president in his attempts to battle the threat of terrorism.
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Entire article is a GREAT read and VERY educational.

[aldian159]

1. Yeah

That investigation has proved to be the tipping point for many I know. Once they heard Kerry was behind it, they loved him for that.

[blm]

3. heh...That's exactly why I keep reposting it, aldian.

The GOP has plenty to fear when Kerry takes office, especially when the public discovers they were working for YEARS to cover up for international financiers and their cronies who were dealing with the terrorists.

[aldian159]

5. It's gonna be all over when that happens

Bush co should surrender now, it will save the time wasted later.

[debatepro]

2. Good talking point for others

Let other people talk about how he was inovative. For the time.

[DELUSIONAL]

4. so when bush was waking up in his own vomit --

Kerry was working to keep this nation safe!

Now that is a visual -- split screen --

Two decades ago -- bush a drunk

Kerry a hard working Senator -- concerned about the welfare of all Americans!

[blm]

6. Worse. Bush was making his own deals with the criminal banks servicing the

terrorists.

And while Kerry's investigations landed Salem Bin Laden under arrest for his links to the criminal activities, George Bush had just sold his Harken shares through Bin Laden and James Bath.

[DELUSIONAL]

7. and therefore bush has more links to the terrorists

then the vast majority of people in the world.

In fact bush is one degree of separation from Osama Bin Laden.