They do know Jack: Some Abramoff and Bush stuff

[TayTay]

From: GOPLobbyists Are Ecstatic About Republican Trifecta
ROLL CALL (US) 01-22-2001
By John Bresnahan

Jack Abramoff

Senior Director of Government Affairs

Greenberg Traurig LLP

Abramoff's decision to move to this Miami-based firm from Preston Gates Ellis & Rouvelas Meeds was big news on K Street earlier this month, since the GOP lobbyist may be worth as much as $8 million in annual client fees to his new firm.

Abramoff is close to Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Texas), as well as Attorney General-designate John Ashcroft and Energy Secretary-designate Spence Abraham.

Greenberg Traurig also added Tony Rudy and Michael Scanlon, two former top DeLay aides, giving the firm access to leadership staff on the Hill, in addition to those Congressional aides moving over to the White House.

Abramoff's clients include the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands, the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and the Channel One network.

[TayTay]

1. Look what the NYTimes knew back in 2002

At $500 an Hour, Lobbyist's Influence Rises With G.O.P.
New York Times, Late Edition - Final, Sec. A, p 1 04-03-2002
By DAVID E. ROSENBAUM

WASHINGTON, April 2

In the last six months of 2001, the Coushatta Indians, a tribe with 800 members and a large casino in southwest Louisiana, paid $1.76 million to the law firm of Jack Abramoff, a Republican lobbyist here.

Last month, the Bush administration handed the tribe a big victory by blocking construction of a casino by a rival tribe that would have drained off much of the Coushattas' business.

Jack Abramoff, $500-an-hour Republican lobbyist and fund-raiser, has used close ties with Repr Tom DeLay and other conservatives to become one of most influential lobbyists in Washington in seven years since party gained control of House; Coushatta Indian tribe, which operates casino in Louisiana, paid Abramoff $1.76 million and got Bush administration to block rival Indian casino; Abramoff's success is reminder that, while public attention focuses on terrorism, business of lobbying hums along, out of spotlight but more profitable than ever; Abramoff says he represents only clients representing conservative interests; photo; list of recent major clients (M)

William Worfel, vice chairman of the Coushattas, views the administration's decision as a direct benefit of the eye-popping lobbying fees his tribe paid Mr. Abramoff, more money than many giant corporations like AOL Time Warner and American Airlines paid lobbyists in the same period.

"I call Jack Abramoff, and I get results," Mr. Worfel said. "You get everything you pay for."

In the seven years since Republicans gained control of the House of Representatives, Mr. Abramoff, 43, has used his close ties to Representative Tom DeLay of Texas, the Republican whip, and other conservatives in the House to become one of the most influential -- and, at $500 an hour, best compensated -- lobbyists in Washington.

He is also an important Republican fund-raiser.

Mr. Abramoff's recent success and importance in Republican circles is a reminder that even as much of official Washington has been focused on the war in Afghanistan, efforts to beef up national security after Sept. 11 and the crisis in the Middle East, the business of lobbying has been humming along quite nicely, more out of the spotlight than usual but more profitable than ever for those with the right connections.

Unlike many lobbyists who take almost any client who is willing to pay their fee, Mr. Abramoff says he represents only those who stand for conservative principles. They include three Indian tribes with big casinos and, until recently, the Northern Mariana Islands.

"All of my political work," he said, "is driven by philosophical interests, not by a desire to gain wealth."

Mr. Abramoff argues that Indian reservations and the island territory, which is exempt from United States labor laws, are "just what conservatives have always wanted, which is enterprise zones -- tax-free, regulation-free zones where with the right motivation, great industry could take place and spill out into the general communities."

His success in making this case to Republicans in the House has paid off handsomely.

At the beginning of last year, Mr. Abramoff left Preston Gates Ellis & Rouvelas Meeds, the law firm where he had worked since he became a lobbyist in 1995, and joined the Washington office of Greenberg Traurig, a firm based in Miami.

Mostly as a consequence, Greenberg Traurig, which received only $1.7 million in lobbying fees during the first half of 2000, had $8.7 million in the first half of 2001, fifth most of any firm in Washington, according to rankings by National Journal. Preston Gates, which had been ranked fifth, saw its lobbying fees cut in half and fell out of the magazine's top 10.

As is often true of the work of lobbyists, it is hard to tell how much influence Mr. Abramoff really has over government decisions, and his recent victory for the Coushattas is a case in point.

Indian reservations are not covered by state laws regulating gambling. The Bureau of Indian Affairs in the Interior Department has the final say on whether casinos can be built on reservations, and the decisions have not always been free from political influence.

Mr. Abramoff did not even directly approach the Interior Department himself, but instead organized a group of lawmakers and other Indian tribes with gambling interests to express to the department their opposition to the new casino.

For lobbyists, perception of influence can often be as valuable as actual influence.

Mr. Worfel, the vice chairman of the Coushattas, said he was delighted with Mr. Abramoff's representation and happy to pay his firm's retainer of nearly $300,000 a month.

Mr. Abramoff's fee of $500 an hour is matched by few if any other lobbyists in Washington.

Mr. Abramoff's background and personality hardly fit the mold of the typical Washington lobbyist.

He is an Orthodox Jew who says that even more than politics, his religion is a central element of his life. He is a teetotaler with a soft voice and a gentle manner who once held a high school weight-lifting record in California. He spent several years in Hollywood producing movies -- "Red Scorpion," an anticommunist thriller, was the most successful -- before becoming a lobbyist.

Most unusual, he is, by his own description, a committed ideologue.

In the early 1980's, Mr. Abramoff was chairman of the College Republican National Committee, where he made important contacts. Among those on his staff were Grover Norquist, now a leading conservative strategist here and president of Americans for Tax Reform, and Ralph Reed, the former director of the Christian Coalition, who is a prominent Republican political consultant.

Mr. Abramoff tries hard to persuade his fellow Washington lobbyists to give more generously to the Republican Party, its candidates and conservative organizations. He expects to raise as much as $5 million this year, he said, and plans to donate as much as $250,000 personally.

Mr. Abramoff's rising influence is also illustrative of another trend in lobbying: success can be built on a strong relationship between a lobbyist and a single, powerful lawmaker. His interest in raising money for Republicans and conservative causes is the foundation of Mr. Abramoff's relationship with Mr. DeLay, who is determined to meld the lobbyists on K Street here into the Republican Party's political, legislative and fund-raising operations.

Mr. Abramoff described the bond this way: "We are the same politically and philosophically. Tom's goal is specific -- to keep Republicans in power and advance the conservative movement. I have Tom's goal precisely."

Mr. Norquist, who is friendly with both men, said of Mr. Abramoff, "He walks in to see DeLay and DeLay knows that he is representing clients whose views are in sync with DeLay's views."

It is difficult to gauge the importance of this relationship to Mr. Abramoff's success. Some of his clients said in interviews that Mr. Abramoff did not mention the relationship when he was seeking their business and that it was not the reason they retained him.

"Everybody is important in Congress, not just DeLay," said Philip Martin, chief of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians. The tribe, which runs a large casino and resort, was one of Mr. Abramoff's first clients and is still one of the most lucrative.

The Mississippi Choctaws paid Greenberg Traurig more than $1 million in the last half of 2001. "Definitely we get our money's worth, or we wouldn't be doing it," Mr. Martin said.

Mr. DeLay did help put Mr. Abramoff on the lobbying map, assisting his clients on two sensitive matters in 1995, the first year Mr. DeLay was whip and Mr. Abramoff's first year as a lobbyist. But it is not clear that the whip was any more active on these measures than he was on other bills before the House that year.

One of Mr. Abramoff's issues was his opposition to a federal tax on Indian gambling revenues. The tax was included in the nonbinding budget resolution the House approved.

But on behalf of the Mississippi Choctaws, Mr. Abramoff said he went to Mr. DeLay and other Republican leaders and explained, "Regardless of what you feel about gaming, what you are creating here is a tax on these people, and conservatives should never be in favor of new taxes."

The proposed tax was killed, Mr. Abramoff said, "once they discerned a conservative principle."

The other big issue for Mr. Abramoff in 1995 that promoted his career was a bill passed by the Senate that would have stripped the Northern Mariana Islands of their exemption from the United States minimum wage and immigration laws.

The main industry in the Marianas is textiles. Inexpensive clothes are made there, mostly by immigrant Chinese women who work for low wages in substandard conditions, and the garments are shipped duty-free to the United States with a "Made in the U.S.A." label.

With Mr. DeLay's help, Mr. Abramoff managed to get the legislation defeated in the House, using the argument that the Marianas represented low taxes and free enterprise and should be left alone.

Representative George Miller, a California Democrat who sponsored the legislation in the House, is still furious about Mr. Abramoff's action. In a recent interview, Mr. Miller said, "He spent a lot of time, effort and money to protect a system that was a growth industry for sex shops, prostitution, abuse of women, slavery, illegal immigration, worker exploitation and narcotics, and he did it all in the name of freedom."

Asked about this, Mr. Abramoff replied: "Congressman Miller has an agenda, and he wants the facts to fit his thesis. No lobbyist could have convinced Congress to support the system he describes."

After the bill was defeated, Mr. Abramoff took 150 lawmakers and staff members to the Northern Marianas, 200 miles north of Guam, and Mr. DeLay came back enthralled.

Unfortunately for Mr. Abramoff, turning the islands' economy into an ideological cause has come back to haunt him. In last November's election for governor, he supported the candidate of the garment industry, Benigno Fitial, against the Republican candidate, Juan Babauta. Mr. Babauta won and soon after he took office in January, he canceled the government's $100,000 per month contract with Mr. Abramoff.

"The U.S. territories have traditionally been handled in Washington in a bipartisan manner," an associate of the new governor said. "Abramoff marked an end to that approach. So in a change of government, it was only natural that he be dropped."

Photo: Jack Abramoff, one of Washington's highest-paid lobbyists. (Susana Raab for The New York Times)(pg. A17)

Chart: "IN BRIEF: A Lobbyist's Clientele"
Some of the main clients of Jack Abramoff, a Washington lobbyist, in the last six months of 2001, and the fees each paid to his law firm, Greenberg Traurig:

Chitimacha Tribe of Louisiana: $60,000
Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands
United States territory exempt from wage and immigration laws: $600,000
Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana: $1,760,000
Hopi Tribe: $60,000
Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians: $1,040,000
Primedia Inc.
Corporate parent of Channel One: $440,000
Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe: $150,000
Saipan Garment Manufacturers Association
Textile trade association in Northern Mariana Islands: $160,000
Voor Huisen Project Management
Secondary mortgage project in Russia: $300,000
(Source: Senate Office of Public Records)(pg. A17)

[TayTay]

2. Look what Jack was doing in 1985. Under Reagan. Hmmmmm

With Reagan Blessing, Rebels Form Anti-Communist Alliance
Associated Press, Sec. International News 06-06-1985
By ANDREW TORCHIA

JAMBA, Angola

Representatives of four guerrilla groups, brought together in this leftist- ruled African nation by lobbyists for President Reagan, have agreed to cooperate in fighting Soviet-backed governments.

The representatives from Angola, Nicaragua, Afghanistan and Laos declared themselves founders of an alliance opposing the spread of communism, the Democratic International.

The weekend meeting was held in Jamba at the headquarters of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola, or UNITA. Most of the representatives and reporters who traveled from Johannesburg, South Africa, to the meeting left the southeastern Angola bush Wednesday.

Some experts on guerrilla movements said the meeting was the anti-Marxist rebels' first attempt to cooperate internationally in the way Soviet-sponsored forces have done for 20 years.

It was not immediately clear how guerrillas from four distant countries could cooperate, but Lewis Lehrman, chairman of the group that arranged the meeting, said the rebels could raise morale by exchanging information.

He said his organization, Citizens for America, would help the new alliance establish a ''clearing house'' in Washington.

The guerrilla representatives signed a document declaring that the ''Soviet empire'' is ''more vicious and oppressive than all others'' and is ''fated to fall ... because Soviet imperialism violates the true nature of man.''

Jonas Savimbi signed the declaration for UNITA. Other signers were Adolfo Calero of the Nicaraguan Unity of Opposition, Pa Kao Her of the Ethnic Liberation Organization of Laos, and Ghulam Wardak of the Islamic Unity of Afghanistan Mujahedin.

Bee Moa, a Laotian representative, said the meeting produced nothing substantial and ''all we did was to get to know each other.''

The alliance's success would depend on its producing practical gains for the guerrillas, he said, but he did not explain how that would be attempted.

Moua lives in Fitchburg, Mass. Seng Her, another of the four Laotian delegates, lives in Atlanta, Ga. The two Afghan delegates live in Bowie, Md.

Lehrman said Citizens for America organized the meeting to put into action what he called the ''Reagan Doctrine,'' national self-determination and freedom from Soviet oppression.

The group's executive director, Jack Abramoff, said the meeting was held in Angola because Savimbi ''is a prominent symbol of anti-Soviet fighters.'' UNITA claims undisputed control of a third of Angola.

Lehrman, a Republican who unsuccessfully ran for governor of New York in 1982, carried a letter from Reagan expressing sympathy for the guerrillas' cause. He presented each delegation with a framed copy of the U.S. Declaration of Independence. Lehrman founded Citizens for America two years ago to raise funds and lobby for Reagan's economic and military policies. It claims 5,000 contributors in nearly three-quarters of the 435 U.S. congressional districts.

[ProSense]

4. Unbelievable stuff! All of it.

Proof that Rethugs WERE (hope for the end) running things (that means America's power structure: business and media). This guy had free reign to act as the party mob boss for decades.

[TayTay]

3. This is why I despise MA Repubs, from 1981

SHORT CIRCUITS
BOSTON GLOBE, FIRST, Sec. FOCUS 04-19-1981


Membership in Republican college clubs on Massachusetts campuses is now about 5000, up from only 300 in all last year, according to Jack Abramoff, president of the Massachusetts College Republican Union. The Brandeis senior said President Ronald Reagan's victory increased membership "spectacularly." At Harvard, there are 290 members, and last weekend's 10th annual state college convention brought 100 or more student pols to Cambridge for speechifying and resolutions which endorsed nuclear power, Reaganomics, the providing of military aid to El Salvador, and condemnation of the Russians in Afghanistan.

[TayTay]

5. This bastard is dirty and so are the Rethugs who loved him

Mariana governor orders apparel raids
JOURNAL OF COMMERCE, Five Star, Sec. FRONT, p 1A 03-18-1998
By JOHN MAGGS JOURNAL OF COMMERCE STAFF

The governor of the U.S. territory of the Mariana Islands has launched a comprehensive crackdown on apparel manufacturers in response to charges in a Journal of Commerce report that these businesses are engaging in labeling fraud, religious persecution and the forced abortion of pregnant workers.

Since the March 6 report, Gov. Pedro Tenorio has supervised daily raids on the more than 30 apparel factories on the main island of Saipan, where 40,000 alien workers from China, Bangladesh and the Philippines toil for $3 an hour.

The raids have uncovered unsafe working conditions, hundreds of undocumented workers, and an unlicensed medical clinic illegally dispensing drugs.

The stepped-up enforcement comes two weeks before a U.S. Senate hearing on a Clinton administration bill to take control of the island's immigration and labor standards and to impose import tariffs on the $800 million in apparel from Saipan shipped to U.S. retailers. If the legislation passes, it would wipe out that trade, according to Jack Abramoff, a lobbyist for the Marianas.

To overcome Republican opposition to the bill, the Interior Department hired private investigators who compiled the evidence described in The Journal of Commerce on March 6. In letters to this newspaper and the Clinton administration, Mr. Tenorio said he would investigate those charges and recommend that federal authorities investigate them also.

Until this week, Interior officials had planned to present these outside findings at the March 31 hearing. But the Justice Department and the U.S. Customs Service, which have responsibility for federal criminal law and textile fraud, are now formally investigating the charges made by Interior's private investigators, according to Al Stayman, the Interior official responsible for relations with U.S. territories.

Echoing complaints from Mr. Tenorio, Justice and Customs have said that allegations of federal crimes should be investigated by law enforcement officials and not private investigators. Until the charges can be verified by government investigators, these officials have prohibited Mr. Stayman from repeating allegations he has made in a number of television interviews based on the work of his private investigators.

On Tuesday, Mr. Stayman indicated that these restrictions could lead him to back off the most sensational charges, which he had hoped to use against Republican House leaders who have been staunch supporters of the Saipan garment industry.

After weeks of alleging that he had evidence that factory managers were coercing pregnant workers to have abortions, he said Tuesday that the hearing may only address charges that abortions are being performed on Saipan in violation of Marianas law, which strictly prohibits abortion.

Mr. Stayman admits that his private investigation has yielded much information that would not stand up in court, such as anonymous reports of coerced abortion and religious persecution. He also concedes that some of his investigators are human rights activists critical of the Marianas government and might not be seen as objective.

Among the team of private investigators was Tom Gray, a former U.S. Customs Service official hired after U.S. Customs was unable to substantiate charges of labeling fraud. Mr. Gray has told Interior that eight of Saipan's largest apparel producers are illegally transshipping apparel from China, and labeling it as "Made in the USA." Some 30 percent of the island's shipments to the United States are illegally transshipped from China, Mr. Gray estimated.

The local crackdown, and the skirmishing over Interior's investigation, are the latest developments in a furious and partisan battle in Washington over the fate of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.

When it became a U.S. territory in 1976, the commonwealth was exempted from federal labor and immigration rules to help build sustainable industry there. Alien "guest" workers now outnumber U.S. citizens on the island, pay is well-below U.S. minimum wage, and there are extensive reports of workplace conditions that would violate U.S. law in the 50 states.

Republicans such as House Majority Whip Tom DeLay say the charges of worker abuses are exaggerated, and that Saipan is the embodiment of how free enterprise and minimal regulation allows industry to flourish.

On the other side, Mr. Stayman and his allies among human rights groups and labor unions portray the island as capitalism run amok and an affront to American values.

On Saipan, television and newspaper reports have portrayed the apparel factories as sweatshops that would be illegal on the U.S. mainland, and that charge was literally true at Advance Textile Corp.

In a raid last Thursday, local labor officials found that malfunctioning air conditioning allowed temperatures to rise to 90 degrees Fahrenheit on the factory floor, a violation of local law for which the plant's owners face a $5,000 fine.

At the same time, the raid found living quarters for the plant's 200 workers do meet Marianas laws, according to a story in the Pacific Daily News. Women working at the plant live in 400-square-foot air-conditioned rooms, eight to a room and sleeping on bunk beds, which meets the Marianas requirement that workers be allowed at least 50 square feet of living space.

JOFC ARTICLE PROMPTS CRACKDOWN

Allegations of labeling fraud, religious persecutions and forced abortions fuel raids on manufacturers in this U.S. territory.

[ProSense]

7. Wouldn't it have been great

if Lou Dobbs had focused on this instead of outsourcing? The media is a sham.

[TayTay]

6. Guys, last one. But please read this. OMG!

Apartheid Front Mulled Funds For Kemp Team
Newsday, HOME, Sec. NEWS, p A06 07-23-1995
By Dele Olojede. AFRICA CORRESPONDENT; Susan Page of the Washington Bureau and Ron Howell contributed to this story.

Johannesburg, South Africa

Johannesburg, South Africa - A Washington foundation that was set up as a front for apartheid South Africa's military intelligence considered giving a substantial contribution to Jack Kemp's 1987 presidential campaign in the hope of buying influence in American politics, according to documents obtained by Newsday.

As a reward for help in supplying a campaign airplane, costing $450,000, officials of the International Freedom Foundation expected automatic membership in Kemp's "kitchen cabinet," according to the documents. South African officials also thought they could win a voice in picking a sympathetic assistant secretary of state for African affairs, according to a former South African spy who covertly helped guide the foundation's work in the 1980s.

The foundation rejected the proposed contribution, made at the request of a Kemp campaign staffer, because officials thought it unlikely that the former Buffalo congressman could win the Republican nomination. The donation would have been a violation of federal law, which prevents tax-exempt not-for-profit organizations from making such contributions. Vice President George Bush went on to win the presidency, and Kemp served in his cabinet.

Kemp, who voted for economic sanctions against the apartheid regime over then-President Ronald Reagan's veto, vehemently denied Friday that he had anything to do with the request for a plane and said that the aide who wrote the letter acted without authorization.

"I've made a lot of mistakes in my life, but that's not one of them, tying myself to South African intelligence," an anguished Kemp said in an interview.

The maneuverings between the foundation and the campaign provide an unusual look behind the scenes into how a foreign government tried to influence the direction of U.S. policy. Last week, Newsday revealed that the foundation, supposedly a conservative Washington think tank, was part of an elaborate intelligence-gathering and propaganda operation largely funded by the South African military. It drew in many prominent conservative politicians and served as a South African weapon to fight the growing influence of anti-apartheid activists and black liberation movements on U.S. policy.

Prominent Republican and conservative figures associated with the foundation, such as Sen. Jesse Helms of North Carolina, have denied any knowledge of the hidden hand behind the foundation.

According to the documents, Colleen Morrow, then foundation treasurer, argued strongly in an internal memo to the foundation's operational headquarters in Johannesburg for $450,000 to be committed to buying the Kemp campaign a plane. The memo was dated May 26, 1987, in response to a same-day letter from the Kemp campaign, asking Morrow's "assistance with helping the Jack Kemp for President Committee find the use of a jet." That letter was signed by Michael Simpfenderfer, finance coordinator for the Kemp campaign, whom Kemp described Friday as "a rogue elephant" who was subsequently fired.

"We can be the 'kitchen cabinet' types of the Kemp administration," Morrow said in her memo to Russel Crystal, head of IFF Johannesburg who had served in various capacities with security police and the military.

"Due to a loophole in FEC (Federal Electoral Commission) law, one person - the person who provides the plane - has the capacity to become the largest donor to the Kemp campaign," Morrow said in the memo. Kemp said he never heard of the foundation, never met Morrow and did not even know Simpfenderfer, who could not be reached for comment.

"I am embarrassed," Kemp said. "I can't apologize because there is nothing in my background that would tie me to the apartheid regime," he said. "I take responsibility, I guess, for my campaign. If I had known then what I know now, a) it wouldn't have happened, and b) if it did happen without me authorizing it, I would have fired him."

Craig Williamson, commonly known in South Africa as the superspy who ran aspects of the South African military's foreign intelligence operations, said he scuttled the request because he did not think that Kemp had any chance of winning the Republican nomination.

"The IFF came to me to say, 'Can we get $400,000?' " said Williamson, now retired. "If we've got to put in $400,000, we would have put it in Bush's campaign, but they couldn't give me a line into the Bush campaign."

Williamson at that time ran another front corporation for military intelligence known as Long Reach, a British-registered firm that supposedly specialized in security-risk analysis in dangerous neighborhoods around the world. Williamson said Long Reach was in fact an intelligence-gathering outfit that set up listening posts around the globe and that the IFF generated vast amounts of information that was then passed to Long Reach for intelligence evaluation.

But Crystal, who first denied any connection with South African intelligence and later admitted that IFF undertook many assignments for it, said Williamson didn't know what he was talking about. When presented with copies of the letters, Crystal admitted that they were genuine but pleaded a failing memory.

"As far as I know, nothing ever came of this," he said Friday.

On further prodding, Crystal said he recalled talk about a campaign plane.

"Craig at one stage had a plane available somewhere in Africa that he was trying to rent or something," he said. "Whether the available plane was a South African plane or not, I can't tell you."

Crystal added, however, that Williamson was unlikely to have turned down an offer to pay for the aircraft.

Having denied that the IFF "branch" in Johannesburg was actually pulling the strings, Crystal minimized the request from the Washington foundation. "We were a team; we were all friends," Crystal said of IFF officials worldwide. "We shared everything together. We were board members. For something like this to come to us was not unusual."

Despite using foundation letterhead, Morrow said the request for the plane was a private effort by the movie producer Jack Abramoff to aid the Kemp campaign. She at first blamed the whole thing on Abramoff, whose movie, "Red Scorpion," was apparently financed in part by South African intelligence, as reported last week by Newsday. Morrow finally admitted that she was probably skirting with illegality. "It sounds to me from what I know now what I was suggesting didn't sound legal," she said.

Abramoff, a former IFF official who has denied receiving money from South African intelligence, also said he did try to organize a plane for the Kemp campaign but couldn't because "a lawyer told me it couldn't be done." At one point, he said the deal fell through simply because "I didn't personally have the resources."

Newsday revealed last week that South Africa's Military Intelligence spent up to $1.5 million a year on the IFF project, which was code-named "Operation Babushka." Crystal, who ran it from Johannesburg, was code-named "Gypsy." The operation targeted respectable conservatives like Kemp and influential - and currently powerful - ones like Helms, Reps. Dan Burton of Indiana, Robert Dornan of California and Philip Crane of Illinois, all Republicans.

While all have denied any knowledge of the IFF's true motives, their public association with it lent enough credibility to the foundation that it was able to attract upfront donations from individuals and institutions in the United States.

According to several former South African spies and spy chiefs, the South African authorities sometimes moved money from Johannesburg and Pretoria to Washington through a local financial institution, the Volkskas Bank. They also transferred money through the South African Reserve Bank under the guise of "strategic procurements," and through various "dead" accounts in Europe, to the IFF in Washington.

Occasionally, IFF officials hand-carried cash from Johannesburg. Wim Booyse, at the time an IFF official in Johannesburg, said he once saw Crystal carry $30,000 in cash through U.S. Customs undetected while both of them were on a trip to Washington. Williamson said the fraud-riddled Bank of Credit and Commerce International also was sometimes used. The Arab-owned bank collapsed after being subjected to intensive FBI and multi-national investigations into allegations of money laundering.

Williamson said the foundation was invaluable to Long Reach's intelligence-gathering operation.

"You'd have an agent who would use IFF cover but was controlled by Long Reach," he said. "There were games within games and wheels within wheels."

[whometense]

8. This stuff leaves me speechless.

Just wanted to let you know I'm reading, even though the extent of the corruption is overwhelming. Where do you begin? And is there really any hope that this kind of operation could be rooted out? It seems so completely entrenched, and reminds me once again how many people had a motivation to keep JK out of the white house. Sigh.

[TayTay]

10. Oh Lord there is hope.

There is so much more reason for hope now than at anytime in the last 25 or more years. Honestly. The Rethugs were able to do this because they spent the time, money and effort to build a structure that would bring them to power. They brought Limbaugh to talk radio, and they built their Think Tanks that dispensed pundits all across America to spew against Dems and so forth.

The Dems never fought this. Clinton 'won' in '92 but with 43% of the vote because of Ross Perot. The Rethugs rolled over Clinton. When he passed that legislation that balanced the budget, a Rethug issue, the Rethug machinery whirred into action to attack Dems as big tax and spenders. And it worked. We, the Dems, did not have our act in gear. We had popularity with the voters on our issues, but we didn't have the 'machine' the Rethugs had. We just didn't. I found it much, much harder to be a Dem then than now.

Now we are taking them seriously. I know that people are divided on election fraud, but, damn it, it is being talked about. This kind of thing is being talked about slowly and surely across America. OMG! This is big. We have Air America and Ed Schultz and Stephanie Miller and that is new and very, very powerful. (Yes, they are tiny compared to the Rethug structure that is in place. Just wait.) We have armies of volunteers, regardless of the fact that we disagree sometimes, that ache for change and are willing to do whatever it takes. (Seriously. We went toe to toe with the Rethugs, one of the greatest money-sucking machines ever built in politics last year on money. This is amazing and an astonishing achievement of the Kerry campaign that is underreported.)

Hell yeah, there is hope. I seriously believe that we are just getting started. It will be difficult because no group in the history of the world has ever just given up money and power and prestige and stuff, but it can be fought and it is being fought. By people like you. Hell yeah there is hope. Don't let anyone tell you differently. (Yes, it's hard. Yes, corruption is disgusting and horrible, but it can be fought. Don't let anyone ever tell you differently. It can.)

[ProSense]

9. Do you see a pattern emerging?

No not hypocrisy. So Kemp is dealing with Abramoff and a series of events occur that show a pattern of illegality, but it's all just "circumstantial."

[rox63]

11. Where are you finding all of this stuff?

And is there any way you could get it to more people who need to know about it? Perhaps there is someone in the media who maybe won't squelch the information. (We can hope.)

[TayTay]

12. Ve haff vays of getting information.

Abramoff is one of those people who have ben background for the Rethugs for a generation. He was 'known.' (And I hate Mass Rethugs. They are just evil. Think about it, Grover Norquist, Jack Abramoff, etc. They may not be many in number, but they are extra, extra awful. Maybe it's that counter weight to having good Senators, we have extra bad Rethugs. Sigh!)

Most of this info is known to the wider press. (well, they did write the original stories. Check the sources above. Every single one is mainstream.) This is coming out. It's just that I want people to know that the lies about Dems being involved is a total and absolute lie. This lowlife bastard wanted all the marbles for him and his Rethugs buddies alone. And that's a fact, Jack.

Perhaps there is a place for raw stories like this to be archived again. I shall look into it with friends.

Look at this from a 1999 article by that bastion of liberalism: Business week (7/5/99)

With polls showing Republican front-runner George W. Bush closing the gender gap, Vice-President Al Gore has a lot riding on Griffin's ability to woo women--and their wallets--to the Democratic fold.

-- Amway President Dick DeVos and his wife, Michigan Republican Party chairwoman Betsy DeVos, in May hosted a Potomac River cruise to launch a new fund-raising drive for GOP House conservatives. Many of the guests were heavy hitters from the Religious Right. But when pledge time came, the first to sign up was no churchgoer. It was Jack Abramoff, an Orthodox Jewish lobbyist who is among the right wing's most aggressive fund-raisers.

A onetime movie producer, the 40-year-old Abramoff has close ties to House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) and former Christian Coalition executive director Ralph Reed, who has been a guest of the Abramoffs for Passover seders. ``People of faith tend to hold similar political views,'' says Abramoff, who is with the Washington office of Seattle law firm Preston Gates & Ellis. Like others on the Right, Abramoff opposes stiff gun curbs and decries estate taxes as ``morally devoid of content and economically senseless.''

This year, Abramoff expects to rake in at least $4 million for GOP candidates, mostly House lawmakers in marginal seats. He'll host some 50 events, often using his personal skyboxes at Camden Yards (home of the Baltimore Orioles) and the MCI Center (home of the Wizards) in downtown Washington.

Abramoff can shake money trees that are off the beaten path for Republicans. One is a growing network of East Coast Orthodox Jews. Indian tribes are another: Abramoff's clients at Preston Gates include the Choctaws of Mississippi and the Chitimachas of Louisiana. Abramoff also turns regularly to a dozen or so film producers.

Abramoff earned his spurs in the radical right at Brandeis University, a liberal bastion. After graduating in 1981, he moved to Washington to chair the College Republican National Committee, earned a law degree at Georgetown, and took up conservative causes.

A chance meeting with a friend who had a grant to make a movie launched Abramoff's film career. He made a handful of action flicks, including Red Scorpion and Karate Masters. A father of five, Abramoff defends his violent flicks: ``In my movies, the bad guys got killed.''

50 Rethug fundraisers. And that was in '99.

[rox63]

13. OMG

Our bastion of liberalism produced those evil rethugs? OMG, I feel all dirty now. :puke:

[TayTay]

14. Remember the axiom

For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Yup, that scum wiggled out of the dirt of Massachusetts. We produce a lot of smart people here, some of them no-good, dirty, piece of shit bastards. (friggin bastids, actually.) I did not learn to swear like this by accident dearie. We try to keep these things in their cages and police them, but sometimes they get out. Sigh!

[blm]

17. Get this stuff out to GD.

.

[TayTay]

18. Let me rewrite

btw, some of it might have slipped out to the web, oops, how clumsy of me. But then again, then it can get quoted as coming from, ahm, the web.

Let me do a comprehensive article tonight/tomorrow (what the hell, I got time and I hate this bastard with a great big purple hatred.) Do it up proper.

BTW, look at this:
*******************

A lobbyist with a line to Capitol Hill. (Jack Abramoff)
National Journal, Vol. 27, Issue. 30, p 1963(1) 07-29-1995
By W. John Moore

Jack Abramoff is a successful legal advisor on government affairs at the Washington office of a law firm called Preston Gates Ellis & Rouvelas Meeds. His list of exclusive clientele include the governments of Pakistan and Montenegro, Microsoft Corporation and a conglomeration of shipping companies. He has been an active lobbyist for less regulation and more tax benefits from the government. He curries favor with the Republican government due to his past record as a conservative activist.

*******************

Pakistan, Pakistan, didn't Pakistan have something to do with BCCI? Geez, seems to me that rings a bell. International financing, money laudering and all those drugs that went through Pakistan. Gee, wonder what that was all about.

[ProSense]

19. You are

too funny. I look forward to a good read.

[whometense]

15. Joe Conason

:loveya: on Salon: http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2006/01/06/hypocrites/

Let us Prey

Jack Abramoff and his deeply religious right-wing cronies express their "biblical worldview" by swindling Indian tribes and bribing legislators. Verily, mysterious are the ways of the Lord.

Jan. 6, 2006 | Now that such whited sepulchers as Newt Gingrich have denounced the betrayal of the Republican revolution and the evils of congressional corruption, what more can be said about Jack Abramoff, Ralph Reed, Tom DeLay and all the other politicians, operatives and bagmen implicated in their schemes? Perhaps it is worth expressing a small hope that the good religious people of this country will rise up in outrage against the abuse of their faith by all these pious hypocrites.

Rarely has the contrast between the rhetoric of the religious right and the behavior of its leaders been so starkly exposed as in the Abramoff scandal. The most obvious example was the manipulation of Christian activists in Louisiana and Texas by Reed, former executive director of the Christian Coalition, who said he was helping them fight gambling when he was actually using them to promote Indian casinos (and to make a few million bucks for himself).

<...>

Several years ago, at one of many fundamentalist meetings he has addressed, DeLay explained: "He (God) has been walking me through an incredible journey, and it all comes down to worldview. He is using me, all the time, everywhere, to stand up for biblical worldview in everything that I do and everywhere I am. He is training me, He is working with me."

Well, perhaps not everywhere and perhaps not everything. What did God tell DeLay about those lavish trips and dinners and donations, and about the money funneled to his wife? The actual Bible, which he professes to believe is the word of the Lord, is quite clear on the question. Bribery is strictly prohibited in Exodus 23:8 and Job 36:18, which specifically warns: "Be careful that no one entices you by riches; do not let a large bribe turn you aside." <...>

[TayTay]

16. Gingrich Knew Jack, please, what a phony

1985, get that, 1985:

From: POLITICS; A NEW HYBRID, POLITICAL FOUNDATIONS
New York Times, Late City Final Edition, Sec. A, p 20 04-10-1985
By PHIL GAILEY

SNIP

Two Groups Organized Rallies

Last year, two nonprofit tax-exempt groups, the USA Foundation and the American Opportunity Foundation, worked with an arm of the Republican National Committee to organize campus rallies on the first anniversary of the United States invasion of Grenada. Representative Newt Gingrich of Georgia, a Republican, is the founder and chairman of the American Opportunity Foundation.

In North Carolina, associates of Senator Jesse Helms, a Republican, have been accused by state Democratic leaders of using two tax-exempt organizations, the Educational Support Foundation and the Coalition for Freedom, to promote his political agenda.

The Educational Support Foundation owns Jefferson Marketing, which has provided services in fund-raising, the communications media and other fields to political candidates at what the Federal Election Commission contends was "less than the fair market value."

Earlier this year, the election commission filed a suit against the National Congressional Club, the main cog of the Helms political machine, charging that it had used Jefferson Marketing to channel illegal campaign contributions to candidates.

The Citizens for America Foundation will sponsor a conference later this month called, "Central America: Resistance or Surrender?" This tax- exempt group was founded by Lew Lehrman, an unsuccessful candidate for Govenor of New York; Joseph Coors, Holmes Tuttle, Jack Hume and other longtime friends of President Reagan.

Jack Abramoff, executive director of the foundation, said its purpose was "to build a network of supporters of the conservative movement and to leapfrog over Congress and the news media with its message."