Major General Eugene Carmen Renzi buried February 21, 2008 Rick indicted February 22,2008

[seemslikeadream]

Major General Eugene Carmen Renzi, United States Army (Retired) 74, died on Feb. 9, 2008, at home surrounded by his beloved family.
... Burial Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia, 11 a.m. February 21, 2008.
http://www.niaf.org/news/renzi.asp






Mr. Renzi was named the president of ManTech’s Defense Systems Group in 2004, ManTech’s largest business unit and a preeminent provider of Command, Control, Communications, Computers and Intelligence solutions and other mission-critical technology services to the Department of Defense.
http://www.mantech.com/about/memoriam.asp

[seemslikeadream]

1. benefited Mantech International, a major intelligence contractor where Renzi’s father works in a sen

http://www.globalissues.org/Geopolitics/WarOnTerror/corporate_us_intel.php

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/06/01/intel_contractors/
June 1, 2007
More than five years into the global “war on terror,” spying has become one of the fastest-growing private industries in the United States. The federal government relies more than ever on outsourcing for some of its most sensitive work, though it has kept details about its use of private contractors a closely guarded secret. Intelligence experts, and even the government itself, have warned of a critical lack of oversight for the booming intelligence business.
On May 14, at an industry conference in Colorado sponsored by the Defense Intelligence Agency, the U.S. government revealed for the first time how much of its classified intelligence budget is spent on private contracts: a whopping 70 percent. Based on this year’s estimated budget of at least $48 billion, that would come to at least $34 billion in contracts.
..... U.S. intelligence budgets are classified, and all discussions about them in Congress are held in secret. Much of the information, however, is available to intelligence contractors, who are at liberty to lobby members of Congress about the budgets, potentially skewing policy in favor of the contractors. For example, Science Applications International Corp., one of the nation’s largest intelligence contractors, spent $1,330,000 in their congressional lobbying efforts in 2006, which included a focus on the intelligence and defense budgets, according to records filed with the Senate’s Office of Public Records.
The public, of course, is completely excluded from these discussions. “It’s not like a debate when someone loses,” said Aftergood. “There is no debate. And the more work that migrates to the private sector, the less effective congressional oversight is going to be.” From that secretive process, he added, “there’s only a short distance to the Duke Cunninghams of the world and the corruption of the process in the interest of private corporations.” In March 2006, Randy “Duke” Cunningham, R-Calif., who had resigned from Congress several months earlier, was sentenced to eight years in prison after being convicted of accepting more than $2 million in bribes from executives with MZM, a prominent San Diego defense contractor. In return for the bribes, Cunningham used his position on the House appropriations and intelligence committees to win tens of millions of dollars' worth of contracts for MZM at the CIA and the Pentagon’s CIFA office, which has been criticized by Congress for spying on American citizens. The MZM case deepened earlier this month when Kyle “Dusty” Foggo, the former deputy director of the CIA, was indicted for conspiring with former MZM CEO Brent Wilkes to steer contracts toward the company.
..... Outsourcing increased dramatically after 9/11. The Bush administration and Congress, determined to prevent further terrorist attacks, ordered a major increase in intelligence spending and organized new institutions to fight the war on terror, such as the National Counterterrorism Center.
..... Congress, meanwhile, is beginning to ask serious questions about intelligence outsourcing and how lawmakers influence the intelligence budget process. Some of that interest has been generated by the Cunningham scandal. In another recent case, Rep. Rick Renzi, a Republican from Arizona, resigned from the House Intelligence Committee in April because he is under federal investigation for introducing legislation that may have benefited Mantech International, a major intelligence contractor where Renzi’s father works in a senior executive position.

[Octafish]

10. McCain is buddy-buddy with this BFEE turd.

From Talking Points Memo:

Update: The charges boil down to this, basically. Renzi (who's already said he won't seek re-election) is charged with doing everything he can as a congressman to strong-arm others into buying land from his buddy James Sandlin -- Sandlin then allegedly kicked back sizable chunks of cash back to Renzi in a series of complicated financial transactions (thus the money laundering charge). The main details of these charges were reported by the Arizona papers and The Wall Street Journal last year.

Update: Yikes. In a completely separate matter, the indictment charges Renzi with a conspiracy to "embezzle and misappropriate client premiums to fund his congressional campaign."

Update: It's worth recalling that the Renzi case played a small role in the U.S. attorneys' firings scandal. One of the fired U.S. attorneys was Arizona's Paul Charlton. The investigation dates way back to June of 2005, but it did not surface publicly under shortly before the 2006 midterm elections. Renzi's people, obviously, weren't happy, and an aide to Renzi put in a call to Charlton (who in turn reported the contact to the Justice Department leadership).

And the Wall Street Journal later reported that investigators and prosecutors in Arizona had been frustrated with senior Justice Department officials' general reluctance to pursue the investigation. The thrust of the piece was that the investigation had been slow-rolled in the run-up to the election.

Update: Renzi is, at least for the time being, a co-chair of John McCain's Arizona Leadership Team (he's one of 24 co-chairs). One imagines he won't be such a public advocate for McCain this election.

SOURCE w LINKS:

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/02/breaking_gop_rep_renzi_indicte.php

"Monsters must lead such innnn-teresting lives."

[seemslikeadream]

11. Tell me more

about my eyes :hi:

[Octafish]

12. I think I want a whole lotta lumps.

dengre at DailyKos points out McCain and Jack Abramoff breath together. Heh heh heh.

Jack Abramoff: John McCain’s other Lobbyist problem...



Your eyes? I can see everything in your eyes -- mostly, all that is wonderful.

[seemslikeadream]

13. Rick Renzi on 9/11 & 1 month later "dive bombing"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6n0Yqxe8XJ0

[seemslikeadream]

2. Remarks by the Vice President at a Luncheon for Congressman Rick Renzi

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/03/20040315-5.html

March 15, 2004
On issue after issue, from national security, to economic growth, to improving our schools, President Bush has led the way in making progress for the American people. Rick has stood with us on vital issues, and he shares our optimism about the years ahead.
President Bush has a clear vision for the future of this country: Abroad, we will use America's great power to serve great purposes, to turn back the forces of terror, and to spread hope and freedom throughout the world.
Here at home, we will continue building prosperity that reaches every corner of this land so that every child who grows up in the United States will have a chance to learn, to succeed, and to rise in the world.
Once again, thank you all for your commitment to the cause we share. It's an honor to stand with you in supporting Rick Renzi. You are united behind a strong leader and a congressman with the right priorities for his state. Rick is showing his talent, and dedication, and reflecting great credit on the people of the first district of Arizona. President Bush and I look forward to working with him for a long time to come.
Thank you very much. (Applause.)

[malaise]

3. Well you know

Bush praise is the kiss of death. :rofl:

[seemslikeadream]

6. Remarks by the President at Rick Renzi for Congress Breakfast

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Renzi

Remarks by the President at Rick Renzi for Congress Breakfast
October 4, 2006
I remember campaigning for Rick in Flagstaff in a rain storm. That didn't dampen our spirits, nor did it dampen my enthusiasm in saying as clearly as I could, I'm confident he will make a great congressman. And he has proven me right. He deserves to be reelected to the United States Congress. And I thank you for helping him. (Applause.)
I say he deserves it because he's got a record. And I'm going to talk a little bit about what we have done together to make Arizona and the country a better place. But one thing about Renzi, he stands strong on principle. He's got his priorities straight. He prioritizes his faith. He loves his family -- all of them. (Laughter.) Three of his boys are here, Rob, Ron, and Rick. Listen, when you got 12 kids, it's good to have their names start with the same letter -- that way you don't forget them. (Laughter.) But I want to thank the Renzi boys for being here. Thanks for supporting your dad.
..... You know, I said we can cut the deficit in half by 2009; because of pro-growth economic policies and strong fiscal policy out of the House of Representatives because of votes like Rick Renzi, this deficit is going to be cut in half by 2008. The worst way to treat the budget is to run up your taxes, slow down economic growth and expand federal government. And we're not going to let them do it. We're going to win the election because we're pro-growth and wise about the money. (Applause.)


Renzi was born to an Italian-American family<9> in Fort Monmouth, New Jersey. He attended high school in Annandale, Virginia before moving to Sierra Vista, Arizona in 1975, where his father, now-retired U.S. Army Major General Eugene Renzi, served at Fort Huachuca. Renzi graduated from Buena High School and then attended Northern Arizona University, receiving a B.S. in criminal justice in 1980.
Renzi's father was the executive vice president of Mantech International, a company providing information technology services to a number of intelligence and defense-related federal government agencies.
Renzi and his wife Roberta are the parents of 12 children, the most of any member of Congress. Additionally, all of his children have first names that begin with the letter R.
..... Renzi has been criticized for consistently introducing and voting in favor of bills benefiting his father's defense company, ManTech International Corp., a Fairfax, Virginia-based defense contractor.<37> Until his death in February of 2008, Renzi’s father, Retired Major General Eugene Renzi, was an executive vice president of the firm. ManTech had $467 million in contracts at the Army's Fort Huachuca with options for an additional $1.1 billion between 2004 through 2008. In addition, the company, which has an office in Sierra Vista, Arizona, was the largest contributor to Renzi’s 2002 congressional campaign and the second largest in his 2004 campaign.
In 2003, Renzi sponsored legislation (signed into law in November 2003) that dealt hundreds of millions of dollars to his father’s business while, according to environmentalists, devastating the San Pedro River.
..... Neither the fort nor the river is located in Renzi’s Congressional district.
..... Shortly after initiating the investigation of Renzi, the US Attorney for Arizona, Paul Charlton, was added to a list of US attorneys the Justice Department wanted to remove, in an effort that would become the dismissal of U.S. attorneys controversy. In February 2005, Charlton had been on the "retain" list of Kyle Sampson, Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez's chief of staff, but "by September of 2006 — after it became clear that Charlton had launched an investigation of Rep. Rick Renzi, R-Ariz, — Sampson included the Arizona prosecutor on another list of U.S. attorneys 'we now should consider pushing out.'"

[annabanana]

4. The day after,, my,my

Do you suppose they held the indictments up so the family's affair could be completed?

[seemslikeadream]

5. and dead men tell no tales?

[sattahipdeep]

7. Darth Vader knights his secret apprentice?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/oct/25/youngecountry.garyyounge1





Been a long 7 years....Am I Reaching?
With all that has happened, what next?

:hi: & :hug: seemslikeadream

[seemslikeadream]

8. sattahipdeep

a very long time :hug:

and I am so very tired

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_QCldF2CO8

[gratuitous]

9. Renzi seems like a shadowy figure

Even his "hometown" newspaper (whatever "hometown" means to a Republican) can't account for about 20 years of his career.

[troubleinwinter]

14. He supposedly worked at the Department of Defense. Who knows in what capacity.