Abramoff Plea May Mask a Larger Crime: GOP Foreign Influence Peddling

[leveymg]

It appears that a plea agreement has been reached between the Bush Justice Department and attorneys representing GOP fundraiser Jack Abramoff. This reportedly promises to implicate some 20 Congressmen in a elaborate scheme to funnel slush fund money syphoned from Indian tribes and a cruiseline sale to favored lawmakers. However, there is another side to the Abramoff influence-peddling operation that the Indian tribes lobbying fraud and SunCruz probes do not touch, one which major papers, such as The Washington Post, have virtually ignored.

That is the money that Abramoff and fellow GOP fixer, Grover Norquist,have syphoned from Islamic banks and groups known to have financial ties to terrorist organizations, including al-Qaeda. This is the bigger crime of illegal foreign influence over the Bush Administration and GOP lawmakers that FBI whistleblower Sybil Edmonds has tried to expose despite a federal gag order based in the rarely invoked State Secrets exemption. http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/03/31/1616221 ; http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0714/dailyUpdate.html

Unless Democrats and other concerned Americans raise their voices and call for a full inquiry into illegal foreign influence over the US political process and elections, the details of this story just are not going to be made public. We should oppose any plea agreement in the Abramoff case that does not put foreign money into the spotlight.

On that point, there was a very significant piece of background information in yesterday's Raw Story report, which notes that the Greenberg Traurig (GT) law firm, which hosted Abramoff's lobbying shop, was previously convicted of knowingly accepting illegal foreign campaign contributions. A German paid the largest fine to date for that offense after a foreign-source contribution went through a GT lobbyist. Under Federal Election Commission laws, foreign individuals and companies are barred from contributing to American political campaigns and parties. http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Firm_knew_of_Abramoffs_relationship_with_0102.html

This raises a question: are we ever going to hear more about how Jack Abramoff and Grover Norquist funneled money to the GOP from Islamic banks and fees from groups tied to terrorist finance? See, http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/1/2/15814/29480

According to reports published in The Hill, a respected Washington political newsletter, Jack Abramoff and Grover Norquist continued to lobby after 9/11 on behalf of Islamic banks and groups that had been accused of financing terrorist groups. We must now ask, is that side of the Republican influence-peddling scheme ever going to be revealed in court documents, or is this going to get buried as part of Jack's plea agreement with the Bush Justice Department? See, www.dailykos.com/story/2005/10/17/122311/72 ; www.dailykos.com/story/2005/12/13/91057/126

Rawstory ran an article yesterday reporting that the law firm was aware of his unlawful practices months before The Washington Post first reported on them in 2004. Greenberg Traurig claims it had no knowledge of Abramoff's wrongdoing until it was revealed in The Post. According to RawStory:

Before he was a pariah, Abramoff was Greenberg Traurig's poster boy.

SNIP

With Abramoff, Greenberg Traurig did even better than they had hoped. The firm's lobbying receipts leapt fourfold, from $3 million in 2000, to $16 million in 2001. At the peak in 2003, the firm grossed $26 million on lobbying alone.

The scandal hounding Abramoff isn't the first the firm has faced. In 1998, the Federal Election Commission levied a $77,000 fine against Greenberg for knowing soliciting illegal contributions from foreign national. The fine given the German developer in the case, $323,000, was the largest of its kind ever assessed by the FEC.

Reporting in national media, including The Washington Post which has been covering the Abramoff story closely, have virtually ignored foreign sources of fees and funding collected by Abramoff and his various shell companies, money which if it were commingled with Jack's political contributions to the Republican Party would be a violation of federal law.

According to SourceWatch, GT has been involved in other political fundraising and election scandals: http://www.sourcewatch.org /...

Bush-Greenberg Traurig Connections
The following enumerations were published (http://portland.indymedia.org /...) in September 2004 by, among others, the Portland Indymedia. Some sources have been provided in support.

1. "Represented President George W. Bush in the Bush-Gore 2000 Florida election vote recount."

"Court's reputation being tested," (http://quest.cjonline.com /...) Associated Press (cjonline.com), December 11, 2000: "Barry Richard, a partner in the firm, is the lead Bush attorney in Florida. Richard, who is a Democrat, said he was called Nov. 8 about representing Bush." re Barry S. Richard
"Ethics experts say Scalia, Thomas connections not conflicts of interest," (http://archives.cnn.com /...) CNN, December 12, 2000: See "Justice Scalia's sons": "Another Bush lawyer, Barry S. Richard, is a partner in that firm's Tallahassee office."
"Florida Attorneys for Bush and Gore to Debate 2000 Presidential Election Recount," (http://clasnews.clas.ufl.edu /...) University of Florida, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, March 25, 2003: "Barry Richard, chief Florida attorney for Bush ... an attorney of Greenberg Traurig law firm in Tallahassee,..."
"Greenberg Traurig Instrumental in Florida Vote Recount Victory," (http://www.gtlaw.com /...) GTLaw.com, January 13, 2004.
2. "Personally represents Florida Governor Jeb Bush."

"Governor Bush Appoints Raquel A. Rodriguez to Serve As General Counsel," (http://sun6.dms.state.fl.us /...) My Florida, November 25, 2002. re Raquel A. Rodriguez
"Gov. Bush names Greenberg Traurig lawyer general counsel," (http://www.bizjournals.com /...) South Florida BizJournal, November 25, 2002.
"Hayden Dempsey Joins Greenberg Traurig LLP," (http://www.gtlaw.com /...) GTlaw.com, December 23, 2003. re Hayden R. Dempsey
Profile: Hayden R. Dempsey (http://www.rnla.org /...), Republican National Lawyers Association.
Profile: Justin Sayfie (http://www.pmbconsulting.com /...), Poole McKinley & Blosser website. re Justin J. Sayfie.
Bush Donor Profile: Justin J. Sayfie: here (http://www.tpj.org /...) and here (http://www.whitehouseforsale.org /...), Texans for Public Justice.
3. "Hired son of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia on election day 2000--after which Justice Scalia cast one of the 5 to 4 deciding votes which placed Bush in presidency." re John F. Scalia

"Court's reputation being tested," (http://quest.cjonline.com /...) Associated Press (cjonline.com), December 11, 2000: "John Scalia accepted a position with the Miami-based firm Greenberg Traurig on Nov. 7, election day."
"Ethics experts say Scalia, Thomas connections not conflicts of interest," (http://archives.cnn.com /...) CNN, December 12, 2000. See "Justice Scalia's sons": "John Scalia, 35, has accepted a job offer with the Washington office of Greenberg Traurig. Another Bush lawyer, Barry S. Richard, is a partner in that firm's Tallahassee office. ... John Scalia won't actually join the Greenberg, Traurig firm until sometime next year, according to partner Joe Reeder, who said the job was offered weeks before the election and has no connection to the Florida case."
"Attorney John Scalia Joins Greenberg Traurig LLP's Tysons Corner Office," (http://www.gtlaw.com /...) GTLaw.com, January 10, 2001; Scalia's GTLaw profile (http://www.gtlaw.com /...).
4. "Miami-headquartered firm partially funded/sponsored delegation to Israel by House-Senate Armed Services Committee members and government contractors to witnes and be briefed on interrogation resistance procedures and torture techniques ... One of lobbyists joining them to Israel included Jack London, CEO, CACI International, the American defense contractor implicated by Major General Antonio M. Taguba in outsourced Iraqi torture at Abu Ghraib prison." See Taguba Report.

Ali Abunimah, "Israeli link possible in US torture techniques. In exchange for interrogation training, did Washington award security contracts?" (http://www.dailystar.com.lb /...) The Daily Star (Lebanon), May 11, 2004. Also posted May 18, 2004 by San Francisco Indymedia (http://sf.indymedia.org /...).
Tom Flocco, "Gonzalez confirmation hearing ignored US / Jordan torture links and legislative junket to Israel to witness 'anti-terror' exercises," (http://911citizenswatch.org /...) 911citizenswatch.org, January 7, 2005.
5. "Firm has prominent administrative positions in Massachusetts 9/11 Fund which also involves Bush family banking house Brown Brothers Harriman."

"$500,000 DONATION LAUNCHES MASSACHUSETTS 9/11 FUND. Stop & Shop and Greenberg Traurig LLP Launch Fund Supported by Victims' Families," (http://www.gtlaw.com /...) GTLaw.org, January 2002.
Yahoo! Search results (http://search.yahoo.com /...), December 20, 2005.
6. "One appointed as General Counsel of the Department of the Navy and its Office of Naval Intelligence just 90 days before the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon."

"Alberto J. Mora, General Counsel of the Department of the Navy (http://www.chinfo.navy.mil /...), "the 20th General Counsel of the Department of the Navy, was sworn into office on July 25, 2001."
7. "Firm works with 9-11 victims on planning out their U.S. gov't hushmail/bribery estates."

"As The Revolving Door Turns. How does Washington work these days? A telling tale of two Capitol Hill staffers," (http://www.businessweek.com /...) Business Week, July 11, 2005: "On the Hill, both Rudy and Shiffman were involved in issues that were creating a new and lucrative lobbying niche for Greenberg Traurig and others: claims brought by victims of war, terror, and torture against foreign governments and companies. In these cases, U.S. cooperation was key, either in pressing the POWs' case against Japanese companies or in unblocking foreign assets frozen by the U.S. Treasury."
8. "Firm partner is Marvin S. Rosen, Democratic National Committee (DNC) Finance Chairman who supervised activities of convicted fund-raiser and DNC vice-chairman of finance John Huang who had to return half of $3 million+ raised by him because of contributions from illegal foreign sources.

Profile: Marvin S. Rosen (http://www.gtlaw.com /...), GTLaw.com website.
9. Bush still owes Greenberg firm nearly one million dollars for work done by dozens of lawyers and paralegals--leaving some to question why a Republican candidate would hire a Democratic lawyer from a Democratic firm ...

"Bush Florida 2000 recount committee still owes lobbyist's former firm $314k. White House directs queries to RNC," (http://rawstory.com /...) The Raw Story, May 5, 2005:
"Greenberg Traurig has yet to receive more than $314,000 in legal fees charged to a Bush committee during the 2000 Florida recount ... As a corporation, Greenberg's unpaid tab represents a massive in-kind campaign contribution, far larger than anything that went unreported by DeLay. But it appears to be legal: corporations are allowed to donate any amount to the nebulous type of committee employed during the recount. It would, however, violate the committee's self-imposed $5,000 contribution limit from individual donors. ... Greenberg's leadership has apparently declined to press the issue. Jill Perry, Greenberg's director of marketing and public affairs, declined to comment," according to (http://rawstory.com /...) The Raw Story's John Byrne, May 5, 2005.

There is evidence that Jack Abramoff and the Greenberg Traurig firm have served as a conduit for illegal foreign influence-peddling that must be investigated and prosecuted. Readers are urged to contact the media and their representatives to oppose any plea agreement that closes off that line of inquiry.

Copyright, 2005. Mark G. Levey

[AlCzervik]

1. "Slush fund" set the way back machine! I love it.

[Christa]

2. Excellent post!

Recommended.

[dryan]

3. What....

about the SunCruz line situation?

[wishlist]

7. Major corruption probe plea bargain reached on SunCruz reported today

Link to MSNBC on SunCruz plea bargain where he will implicate quite a few Repubs in corruption:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10692635/

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10562787/

[SpiralHawk]

4. k & r -- on general principle

eom

[KansDem]

5. Might explain why the US Secret Service guards the Saudi Embassy...

Unless Democrats and other concerned Americans raise their voices and call for a full inquiry into illegal foreign influence over the US political process and elections, the details of this story just are not going to be made public. We should oppose any plea agreement in the Abramoff case that does not put foreign money into the spotlight.

Bush and the Saudis have a mighty close relationship...

I wonder if any of this goes back to the Iran/Contra scandal involving missiles for the Iranians in exchange for holding on to US hostages in ordr to influence the 1980 election?
:freak:hmmmmm...

[Patiod]

6. ABC news story didn't once mention the word "Republican"

in this morning's coverage of the scandal (the top story on GMA today) --

Not one mention - made it sound downright bi-partisan.

[wishlist]

8. Since Peter Jennings left, ABC seems extremely pro-Bush, soft on Repubs

I used to watch ABC news every night, knowing that Peter Jennings would tell it straight about corruption and the bad news in Iraq and Bush's failures. But now, ABC news coverage seems to soft pedal everything and provide cover for Bush and the Repubs.

[rodeodance]

10. cnn just said it involves BOTH parties--then mentioned Durbin.

[donkeyotay]

17. Republican media have started yet another campaign to lie to America

The NYTs opened with the salvo that because Sen. Dorgan had accepted $5K from a tribe (and, as a psychic he should have known Abramoff told them to give him $5K) and the tribe used a Greenberg Taurig skybox for a fundraiser, it makes him the exact same as the Republican Crime Syndicate that was gaming our democracy the same way Enron gamed California. It was a revolving door of corporate money masquerading as grass roots, quid pro quo "it cost X to get Y done," foreign influence of elections, phony charities, nepotism, cronyism, and round tripping of defense contracts and republican donations.

The truth is the K Street Project, where Delay ordered corporations to cut out the Dems and be loyal to Republicans. The truth is the Cultural War, the win at any costs mentality and the arrogance it spawned, the deliberate use of the Right against the Left as described by Abramoff in 1983 as the Chair of College Republican National Committee:

"It is not our job to seek peaceful coexistence with the Left. Our job is to remove them from power permanently."

The complicit media won't say it, so we must shout it from the rooftops: this is a story of Republican corruption. It is the failure of their philosophy and their policies. This is so much a republican scandal that it even reaches the President. As Conyers's letter for an investigation points out, Abramoff's clients in Guam were targeted with a subpoena on November 18, 2002. On November 19, 2002, bush demoted the U.S. Attorney General, which shut down the investigation.

It's Republican, and it goes to the top and it will rock the nation's faith in letting corrupt corporations run their democracy for them while hiding their true mafia nature behind the blanket denial of "national security."

If the media won't keep the people informed, then we must do their job for them through the grapevine.

[BikeWriter]

41. Bush removal ended Guam investigation (link to story)

Abramoff spokesman Andrew Blum said the lobbyist ''has no recollection of his being investigated in Guam in 2002. If he had been aware of an investigation, he would have cooperated fully." Blum declined to respond to detailed questions.

The transactions were the target of a grand jury subpoena issued Nov. 18, 2002, according to the subpoena. It demanded that Anthony Sanchez, administrative director of the Guam Superior Court, turn over all records involving the lobbying contract, including bills and payments.

A day later, the chief prosecutor, US Attorney Frederick A. Black, who had launched the investigation, was demoted. A White House news release announced that Bush was replacing Black.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2005/08/08/bush_removal_ended_guam_investigation?mode=PF

[EFerrari]

9. In addition to contactin the media, what about Fritz?!

What if a hundred or so of us sent this OP to him?

Is there email contact at his site? I've never been there.

[leveymg]

14. It's not Fitz's case, unfortunately.

The SunCruz fraud is being prosecuted by the US Attorney in Miami. Meanwhile, the USA for the District of Columbia has the Indian Tribes scam. The original US Attorney who was investigating Abramoff in Guam was dismissed in 2002.

This splitting up of the case against Abramoff is adding to the confusion. Normally, a prosecution of an individual would be consolidated in a single federal court.

[Che_Nuevara]

22. That's not at all true.

Cases are split between jurisdictions very often. When there are jurisdiction disputes, for example. Also, a person accused of multiple crimes in multiple jurisdictions faces more than one trial, so if a sympathetic jury in one jurisdiction acquits him, a less so one in another may not. (Take for example the DC sniper.)

[Trevelyan]

33. No Email on his site but there is an address to reach Fitz in Washington

and Chicago offices:

http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/iln/osc/

[cantstandbush]

11. Burring this may be part of Abramoff's plea agreement BUT it is NOT

and should not be a part of any agreement by good and courageous journalists. Every detail of the Abramoff sorrid scandal and thwarting of the US Consititution and all of his supporters and associates should be exposed including his using contributed funds to fund Israeli terrorist schools.

[aquart]

19. Wow. You read that Abramoff linked to Islamic banks

and you get the result of "fund israeli terrorist schools."

I'm impressed.

[leveymg]

29. The GOP is a "Big Tent". They'll take money from anyone, and do.

Also, it wouldn't be the first time that the Israeli Far-right has made a tactical alliance with Saudi Royals and their bankers - that was the money tree that fed Iran-Contra, which involved Abramoff and Norquist in supporting roles.

[formernaderite]

12. Like every other non-event....Fitzmas included

I've pretty much washed my hands...this too will end up being less of nothing.
And NO>...I'm not obscenely cynical...just cynical.

[leveymg]

31. Dubya and his cronies will be brought down, but not entirely for the

reasons given in public plea agreements and court filings.

Instead of truth-seeking, what we are seeing is something akin to Watergate, where the President was brought down on secondary charges -- which were perhaps somewhat trumped up -- while evidence of the most serious crimes of state were left inside classified files. There are a couple reasons why that's the practice in dealing with the offenses of high officials:

1) The power elites, like Col. Jessup, the Jack Nicholson character in A Few Good Men, truly believe, "You can't handle the truth! Son, we live in a world that has walls. And those walls have to be guarded by men with guns. Who's gonna do it? You?". In other words, the public tribunals that are set up to judge the transgressions of the warriors aren't qualified or equipped to understand what is really done in the name of the national security and commercial interest. Men like Abramoff are warriors, of a sort, in the half-hidden world of political dirty tricks and international influence peddling that increasingly dominates the American political process and our economy.

2) A detailed public accounting of the worst crimes would violate the prohibition against revealing the "methods and sources" of intelligence agencies. The fact is that at the top, almost everything is monitored and there really are very few secrets that go unnoted by multiple spy agencies, both domestic and foreign, governmental and private sector. These means of information collection are largely illegal and rely on deception by trusted insiders. No prosecution, even of renegade White House advisors involved in espionage and a conspiracy against the interests of the United States -- I refer here to the Iraq WMD subtrafuge, the OSP-AIPAC spy case, and the Plame outing -- is worth revealing and dismantling this network of informants and double-agents.

So, instead, we get surrogate scandals -- the SunCruz and Indian tribes prosecutions of Abramoff, and the "post-9/11" warrantless surveillance of US persons suspected of ties to al-Qaeda -- that only partially reveal the larger crimes. In the end the worst miscreants -- the ones who stupidly threaten the legitimacy of the system -- are brought down, but the truth remains mostly concealed.

[hang a left]

13. Wouldn't it be a good idea to send this to Conyers? eom

[leveymg]

15. Please, be my guest.

Also, please ask him why this case hasn't been consolidated.

[mom cat]

16. And what was Atta doing at Jack's casino just before 9-11?

http://www.madcowprod.com/06202005.html

[Al-CIAda]

21. Hopsicker is a must read.

[Dover]

18. oops

[AntiFascist]

20. K & R

This is the much more important aspect to the story and needs to be fully investigated!!

[wiley]

23. Whoa!

I think it's going to get very ugly for the corrupt Republicans.

Corrupt Republicans.
Corrupt Republicans.
Corrupt Republicans.
Corrupt Republicans.
Corrupt Republicans.
Corrupt Republicans.
Corrupt Republicans.
Corrupt Republicans.
Corrupt Republicans.
Corrupt Republicans.
Corrupt Republicans.
Corrupt Republicans.
Corrupt Republicans.

IMPEACH THEM ALL!

[Dunvegan]

26. What Wiley said...

...and because it cannot be repeated enough.

Corrupt Republicans.

IMPEACH THEM ALL!

[Old and In the Way]

24. Good stuff Mark

It's a shame we can't see well sourced investigative reporting like this from the lamestream media. If this does not expose the Republican as a criminal Syndicate enterprise, nothing will.

[blm]

25. Wanna bet that at least half these characters were part of BCCI, too?

.

[leftchick]

27. I think now is the perfect time for Sybil to Spill!

Let it all out Sybil!

[Trevelyan]

34. Go to Sibyl Edmond's site and sign petition for her to be ungagged

http://www.JustACitizen.com/

She has interviews on her site before she was gagged, letters from Senators incl. Leahy, her protection for government Whistleblowers link, and the shameful story of how she and her lawyer were banned from the courtroom in her own case appeal of the gag order because of "national security."

In one of the interviews she mentions Hastert taking foreign bribes and that when this came out Congresspersons were going to go to jail.

Please support this very courageous and important whistleblower.

She wrote an article on her site "I'm Just Gagged, I'm Not Dead" and the article ends with the word "Yet." She is worried and asks that people post her site URL and ask people to sign her petition so that she can tell the truth about 911 and it's connection with price fixing for gold.

The US went off the gold standard during Reagan/Bush reign. Google Ft. Knox, some very interesting articles. Where is the gold?

[diamondsndust]

40. I tried to sign...

the petition, and got an error at the end where it would NOT let me view my signature and submit it. Has Big Brother censored or shut this down now, or is it just a problem with the site??

http://www.offrampbums.com/bushbum.html

[Free the Press]

28. Based on other threads here on DU, the other crime may be a coup d'etat.

This prosecutor has a compelling past:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x41598

Now, after reading through those links, who do you expect to be the targets of this prosecutor?

[muchacho]

30. sweet

2006 is looking good already.

[Trevelyan]

32. Recommended - Thank you for this information - I will contact my Congress

Persons and the media, esp. the Wash. Post.

FireDogLake has an article on Alice Fisher who has been appointed as a bush crony overseeing this scandal ie to cover up and scare off as many people as possible. Alice Fisher had trouble with her appt. to DoJ because of her approval of the torture at Abu Ghraib. Alice Fisher, like Gonzales, has NO TRIAL EXPERIENCE!!

[DirtyDawg]

35. Somehow I Knew This...

...whole Abromoff thingy had the earmarks of being 'too good to be true'. When I thought it was perhaps some independent, hard-headed, honest, prosecutor from somewhere in the hinterlands, then maybe we could expect some independent, hard-headed, honest prosecution. But when the 'Bush' Justice (sic) Department traipes another of their blondies...name one right-wing mouthpiece - lawyer or commentator/shit slinger - that's not a passably attractive, blond-headed, smart-mouth...when I saw that whole sorry, orchestrated show that took place yesterday, my heart sank. They've done it to us again. Yeah, they'll sacrifice a few greedy, low-level Congressmen (tell me, how much hush money does it take for these guys to truly 'shut the f**k up' forever?) but the Prez and his handlers will skate.

Just when I thought somebody in power was going to allow their conscience to come forth.

[kentuck]

36. I think this may very well be a cover-up of much larger crimes....

Yes, your Honor, I am guilty of littering and will accept my punishment like a man...

[madrchsod]

37. hmmmmm--- now this makes Fitzgerald's

failed case against the saudi charities in chicago all the more interesting..who called the nyt and tipped them off to a raid that had`nt happened yet? i`m sure fitzgerald`s staff is looking into this

[MelissaB]

38. replying to read and find later

:kick:

[november3rd]

39. Terrific post.

I want to devour this later and spread the news. But for now, as Frank Pentageli says in Godfather II when he hears about Roth's assassination attempt on Michael Corleone:

"Jesus Christ, Mike! Jesus Christ. Let's hit 'em all, right now, while we have the muscle!"