War Without End

Alpha

McGREEVEY SEX SCANDAL WAS ISRAELI INTELLIGENCE OPERATION,
SAYS INTELLIGENCE EXPERT
U.S.Newswire -- From New York, Monday, August 16, 2004
http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?ReleaseID=34760
http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=102-08162004

Foreign Policy/Intelligence Columnist Andy Martin Says McGreevey Sex
Scandal was Israeli Intelligence Operation

Contact: Andy Martin Worldwide Communications, 866-706-2639
(andy@andymartin.com)

America's most respected foreign policy/intelligence analyst,
Out2.com's
Andy Martin, will publish a column and hold a news conference in New
York today (Aug. 16) to disclose that the New Jersey sex scandal
involving Gov. James McGreevey was really an Israeli intelligence
operation gone sour.

News Conference Details:
Time/date: today (Aug. 16) at 1 p.m. EDT
Location: Southwest Corner of Fifth Avenue and 57th Street, New York
City

"People have been confused by the McGreevey sex scandal," says Martin.
"But McGreevey's dilemma is not a gay sex scandal. It is an Israeli
intelligence operation gone sour. This is not a scandal about 'sex.' It
is a scandal about 'secrets.'

“McGreevey said he had sex. He did. Golan Cipel says he is not gay.
He's
not. They are both right. Mr. Cipel was a junior Mossad case officer,
originally posted to New York under official cover. The Mossad is well
known for using human sex toys. McGreevey was lured into a relationship
that was intended to penetrate New Jersey's homeland defenses.

"Since 9/11 there has been barely suppressed anger at the fact Israeli
intelligence knew about the hijackers and said nothing. Israelis have
found themselves under suspicion and restricted by some intelligence
channels. The state homeland security position was seen as a back door
way of spying on anti-terror preparations in the New York-New Jersey
area, and possibly nationally.

"The media have focused on the wrong blackmail scheme. This was not a
sexual blackmail situation, although threats and demands have been
made.
'Gay sex' is being used to conceal the real nature of the betrayal.
This
was a blackmail scheme intended to place Golan Cipel in a position of
intense interest to Israeli intelligence.

"I am asking the U.S. Attorney for New Jersey to refocus his
investigation into a breach-of-security investigation instead of a sex
scandal.

"Based on my extensive experience with foreign intelligence agencies, I
think you will see Mr. Cipel, who is now exposed by his non-official
cover, on a plane back to Israel very soon.

"Gov. McGreevey was a 'fool for love,' but the root cause of his
weakness was his mistaken belief that Cipel was a lover, when he was in
fact Cipel was a trained intelligence asset trying to exploit
McGreevey's weakness to benefit Israeli security interests," says
Martin.

===========================================================

Alpha

Israeli Espionage: When a Honey Trap Goes Bad A Governor Resigns

By John Anast

Al-Jazeerah, August 15, 2004

With the news out that in fact James McGreevey is, by his own admission, a homosexual; the Mossad honey trap has become somewhat unglued. Golan Cipel, the object of the Mr. McGreevy’s affection, worked for the Israeli consulate in New York in the 1990’s and other posts in a capacity to serve the Israeli espionage service and its targeting of American politicians and the American political system.

Notwithstanding all the self-serving political rhetoric spewing from democratic lips attempting to relegate the matter to a personal issue between two men, there are larger and in deed more relevant issues to our Nation's security to discern. It is a glimpse into the world of Israeli espionage targeted against the United States, its politicians, and its people.

Despite recent numerous pronouncements by both public and private figures alike that Mr. McGreevey’s sexual preference came as a shock, to the contrary it was widely known in political and business circles that the ex-governor had a per chant for male sex partners. There were any number of swirling allegations regarding his sexual exploits, not the least of which that the ex-governor broke his leg at a New Jersey beach during a homosexual act gone awry.

With the knowledge of the ex-governors preference for men, Mossad activated Cipel to lure McGreevey into a compromising position for exploitation, extortion and blackmail purposes. It is alleged that in a pre-arranged visit to Israel, organized by New Jersey Jewish organizations, Mr. McGreevey was introduced to the Jewish homosexual, Mr. Cipel at a political function.

In its zeal to penetrate the Governors office and homeland security, Mossad demanded that Cipel, an Israeli citizen who lacked any requisite experience or security clearances, be appointed to run New Jersey’s homeland security office. In that position Mr. Cipel could have not only obtained information on US security procedures, but also been in a position to access sensitive investigative information, methods and sources relative to US efforts to thwart Israeli espionage against the United States. New Jersey is still reeling from the Israeli espionage ring which was housed in Urban Movers that collapsed soon after it was discovered on 11 September, and more recently by the detention of two (2) Israelis, working for a New Jersey moving company, caught with classified submarine fuel near a US base in Tennessee where the fuel is manufactured.

Investigators should not limit their investigation to Cipel and his activities but should also be reviewing every appointment made by the McGreevey administration and especially those dealing with homeland security, to ensure that additional Israeli moles are not in-place conspiring espionage against the State of New Jersey and our Nation. Investigators should also be reviewing if telephone calls from the ex-governors home and office were logged by Amdocs, and if that information was shared with Israeli agents in Israel, as Amdocs is an Israeli company based in the United States which monitors and tracks most calls made within our Nation.

This should be a wake-up call to every local, state and federal agency to demand that all meetings public or private by any official, and or any member of their staff, and any foreign national, or any person holding dual citizenship be made part of the public record as a matter of law. It would also enhance security in the State of New Jersey to make it mandatory that the Division of Motor Vehicles include the place of birth, and any dual citizenship the recipient may hold. It would likewise increase security to tag every foreign visitor to the United States to know and monitor their whereabouts at all times.

Alpha

http://www.warwithoutend.co.uk/middle-east-and-asia/2004/08/14/israeli-extortionist-says-mcgreevey-made-sexual-advances.php

Alpha

How to Plant a Spy in a Governor's Bed:

http://www.couplescompany.com/Features/Politics/2004/Cipel1.htm

Alpha

More- http://www.counterpunch.org/madsen08142004.html

An Israeli / Rove Connection?
The McGreevey Scandal
By WAYNE MADSEN

Here we go again. Another political bombshell hits the American people and
there is yet another connection to the subterranean labyrinth of possible
Israeli intelligence activities. New Jersey Democratic Governor Jim
McGreevey's announcement on August 12 that he was resigning because of his
involvement in a gay relationship with an Israeli national may be the tip of
an iceberg that represents another high-level Israeli attempt to burrow into
the most sensitive areas of U.S. national security and our political
process. The surprise announcement is also being used by a number of
neo-conservative news outlets to tarnish the Democratic Party and absolve
Israel of any connection to the New Jersey political scandal.

The ties between Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Russian-mafia infused
government and shadowy Israeli and Eastern European ex-intelligence agents
are beyond a doubt, according to international law enforcement officials.
But what is not readily apparent is the fact that a number of Israeli
off-the-books intelligence operatives are active inside the United States
and they do not have U.S. national interests in mind. In particular, the
Israeli-Russian mobsters and their allies within the Sharon government have
adopted one of the most successful intelligence ploys used by the former KGB
and East German Stasi--the use of prostitutes or "swallows" to gain intimate
access to high Western politicians, so-called "sexpionage." In the case of
Israel, which welcomed a number of émigré former Eastern bloc intelligence
agents during and after the Cold War, this has entailed the use of both
female and male prostitutes. The fact that White House chief dirty tricks
operator Karl Rove has close connections to the political spin machine run
out of Sharon's Jerusalem office is also a concern when it comes to
Israeli-connected dirty tricks operations being run against Democratic
politicians in the United States.

It should be remembered that New Jersey Democratic Senator Robert Torricelli
was forced to drop out of his re-election race in 2002 because of leaks
about his involvement with a contributor indicted on federal charges.
Torricelli's major problems in New Jersey arose after he was chastised for
missing an important Senate vote supporting Israel. The Senate, at the time,
was tenuously in the hands of the Democrats, who had a one-seat majority.
However, Torricelli was replaced on the ticket by Frank Lautenberg, who went
on to win the seat for the Democrats.

Jim McGreevey was a rising star in Democratic politics. As Mayor of
Woodbridge, a New York City commuter suburb, McGreevey decided to opt for
statewide political office. At the same time he appeared on the Israeli
intelligence radar screens. In 2000, with his eye on the New Jersey
statehouse, Mayor McGreevey joined a large delegation of New Jersey Jewish
supporters in a political "mega pilgrimage" to Israel, where he met Golan
Cipel, said to be a tour guide/information officer for the mayor of the Tel
Aviv suburb of Rishon Le-Zion, the first Zionist settlement in Palestine.
However, Cipel had previously been the press secretary for the Israeli
consulate general in New York City. In 1999, Cipel, who is now being
described as a one-time low-level Israeli government employee in New York
and a "poet," gave a speech on behalf of the Israeli government at a meeting
at the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Madison Avenue offices on some very high
profile issues, including the implications of the recent death of King
Hussein of Jordan, the upcoming Israeli elections, and the peace process
with the Palestinian Authority.

Cipel was also a former Israeli naval officer, leaving the service with the
rank of lieutenant. How a person goes from an influential position with one
of the most important Israeli diplomatic missions abroad to a mere Jerusalem
area tour guide seems, on the surface, extraordinary. But in the world of
intelligence, such career changes are driven by political necessity, not by
choice. McGreevey's admitted lifelong homosexuality also made him a likely
target for an intelligence approach--and Cipel, who, as a 1998 graduate of
the New York Institute of Technology and the New York Israeli consulate's
press spokesman, was more than familiar with north Jersey's political and
social terrain. And Cipel was no stranger to right-wing Republican politics.
In 1995, Cipel and future Washington Times reporter Joshua Mitnick edited an
Israeli consulate news wire called "Israel Line." The Washington Times,
owned by Rev. Sun Myung Moon, is a money-losing outlet for neo-conservative
political opinion.

After McGreevey returned to New Jersey from Israel, Cipel also moved to
Iselin, New Jersey and was hired by a billionaire Florham Park land
developer and Democratic fundraiser named Charles Kushner, an individual who
became the source for $250,000 for McGreevey's campaign for the governor's
mansion. Kushner sponsored Cipel for a temporary work visa. After McGreevey
was sworn in as governor, he named Kushner to the board of the Port
Authority of New York and New Jersey, the original owners of the World Trade
Center. Kushner was recently indicted on federal charges of corruption
involving a land deal and illegal campaign contributions.

Soon after McGreevey announced his candidacy for the governorship, Cipel
became one of his campaign advisers. During 2001, in his role as McGreevey's
Jewish liaison adviser, Cipel received another temporary work visa that was
sponsored by the New Jersey State Democratic Committee.

After McGreevey's election, Cipel was named homeland security director for
New Jersey, a $110,000 per year job. New Jersey sponsored Cipel for yet
another temporary work visa just four months after a number of Israelis were
rounded up and arrested by New Jersey police and Federal agents for
photographing and celebrating the collapse of the Twin Towers on September
11. Cipel, who had no verifiable security experience, was touted by
McGreevey's administration as having gained his anti-terrorist credentials
as a member of the Israeli Defense Force. An Israeli military expert told
the Bridgewater, New Jersey Courier News that Cipel's military record was
"routine, at best." In addition, Kathryn Flicker, an assistant attorney
general for New Jersey, was appointed by McGreevey to head of the state
counter-terrorism office but only after Cipel was strangely named as a
parallel counter-terrorism official.

After both Republican and Democratic New Jersey legislators complained about
Cipel's lack of qualifications and the Federal government refused to grant
him a security clearance because he was not a U.S. citizen, the Israeli
national left his position as homeland security czar and took up his
previous campaign job as McGreevey's Jewish affairs adviser and special
counsel at the same $110,000 salary. Inexplicably, Cipel maintained a staff
of three assistants for a staff job that had no real responsibilities.
_________________

Alpha

Israeli Connection to 9/11:

http://www.warwithoutend.co.uk/middle-east-and-asia/2004/07/31/israel-9-11-connection-exposed.php

Alpha · Posted: Tue Aug 17, 2004 8:25 am Post subject: Sex, Lies, and Terrorism

Sex, Lies, and Terrorism
How did Golan Cipel become New Jersey's 'anti-terrorism' czar?
by Justin Raimondo
Aug. 16, 2004

Â Find this article at:
http://www.antiwar.com/justin
Â
This an excerpt:

Israeli organized crime and the Mossad are among the prime suspects
over
Governor McGreevey

New Jersey state officials, Democrats as well as Republicans, had long
been
mystified by the apparent hold Cipel had over Governor McGreevey, and
early
news accounts are filled with hints of a "special" relationship: heck,
the guys
over at Free Republic outed McGreevey two years ago. But the homosexual
angle
is hardly the whole story. The national security aspect of this episode
ought
to frighten the heck out of anyone who believes that government efforts
to
fight terrorism on the home front are in any way reassuring. How naÃ¯ve
can you get?

But it also ought to raise a few questions beyond when is the Gay
Governor
going to start dating again.

New Jersey is key terrain in the real war on terrorism: Flight 93 from
Newark
to San Francisco was commandeered by the terrorists on 9/11 and crashed
into
a field in Pennsylvania after passengers rushed the hijackers. The
anthrax
letters were mailed from New Jersey. Newark has recently been put on
orange alert
as the U.S. braces for a pre-election terrorist strike.

So letâ€™s forget the gory details of McGreevey's sex life, and focus
on the
question of why did Cipel lobby so hard to get the job of New Jersey's
shadow
terrorism czar, nixing ex-FBI Louis Freeh and hiding behind Kathryn
Flickerâ€™s
skirts? It seems like only yesterday that McGreevey was still defending
Cipel,
and New Jersey media reported:

"When the FBI issued a terrorist alert last week, it was apparently
Cipel who
first contacted McGreevey, not New Jersey's newly appointed terror
czar,
Assistant Attorney General Kathryn Flicker. Even before McGreevey's
election in
November, administration sources said, Cipel toured the state â€“
visiting
refineries, nuclear plants, bridges, and seaports â€“ to make an
inventory of security
needs. McGreevey said Cipel has already offered â€˜invaluable
insightsâ€™ into a
variety of security matters, both large and small. â€˜He's someone who
thinks
with a different set of eyes, and that is very hard to find,â€™
McGreevey said."

So this guy was out there "inspecting" nuclear plants â€“ if that
doesnâ€™t set
off alarm bells, then we might as well pack it in, because we're all
doomed.

As an Israeli citizen, Cipel couldnâ€™t have access to classified
materials â€“
except through the "back door," so to speak, via McGreevey. Did
McGreevey balk
at the arrangement, and transfer Cipel to another job? That, at any
rate, is
when their "relationship," whatever it was, apparently began to go
sour.

If Cipel maintains that he consistently refused McGreevey's advances,
then
how can he explain the series of jobs the governor found for him after
he left
public service? If the sexual relationship was nonexistent, then what
power did
Cipel have over the governor? In any case, he exercised that power in
order
to penetrate the U.S. counter-terrorism apparatus â€“ on whose behalf
is not
altogether clear, but Israeli organized crime and the Mossad are among
the prime
suspects. After all, it would hardly be the first time the latter used
sex as a
lure: isn't that how they got Mordechai Vanunu?
=========
Sex, Lies, and Terrorism
How did Golan Cipel become New Jersey's 'anti-terrorism' czar?
by Justin Raimondo
Aug. 16, 2004

The self-"outing" of New Jersey Governor James McGreevey and his
involvement
with Golan Cipel, described as a 30-something Israeli "poet," soon
degenerated
into one of those the-personal-is-the-political soap operas Americans
seem to
revel in. After hearing McGreevey's now famous "I am a gay American"
speech,
some gushed that this put him right up there with rising Democratic
star Obama
Barack. Gay rights groups were quick to hail McGreevey for spilling his
guts
to the nation. No sooner had the Gay Guv finished filling us in on the
details
of his trauma-laden childhood and the burden of a life lived in the
"closet,"
when every cable news station booker was dialing Arianna Huffington's
number.
Her image flooded the airwaves, and, as she intoned knowledgeably and
interminably about the travails of a wife who has been left for a man,
it seemed
somehow appropriate that Arianna is one of those women who might be
plausibly
mistaken for a drag queen. The amalgamation of "news" into
entertainment never
seemed more vivid. But as I half-listened to the former Gingrich
groupie-turned-limousine-lefty bibble on in heavily-accented
psycho-babble, she suddenly
blurted out the truth:

"As the day progressed, it became clear that this was a story unfolding
on so
many levels only a Shakespearean drama or a Verdi opera could do
justice to
it. There was the personal, the political, possibly the legal, and who
knows
what else to be revealed by the time we get to Act Five."

Act Two unfolded soon thereafter. Cipel denied being gay, and denied
having
consensual sex with McGreevey: he issued a brief statement through his
lawyers
that used the word "victim" at least three times. The McGreevey camp
struck
back, claiming that Cipel had demanded $50 million as the price of his
silence,
later lowering the price to $5 million, and then a mere $2 mil, with
the
negotiations continuing right up until minutes before McGreevey went
before the
cameras.

Amid the voyeurism and vulgarity of this media circus, and hints of
more
revelations to come, I had to laugh out loud at Arianna's remark that
the hiring
of Cipel "only makes sense as a taxpayer-funded cry for help."

McGreevey hiring his boytoy as the state's anti-terrorist chieftain
less than
a year after 9/11 no doubt makes sense to Arianna, and to the millions
of
romantic fiction fans for whom nothing is impossible when it comes to
love. But
for the rest of us, the question is obvious: if McGreevey had to give
his
boytoy a job, why appoint him to the crucially important post of
anti-terror czar?
Why not give him a cushy office job in some obscure state agency?
Certainly
that would have been less obvious, and, as it was, McGreevey did his
best to
render the appointment invisible. As the New York Timesreports:

"On Jan. 24, 2002, with great fanfare, Mr. McGreevey announced the
creation
of an office of counterterrorism and appointed Kathryn Flicker, a
respected
assistant attorney general, to the post.

"But in late February, reporters discovered that there were two
Homeland
Security officials. Mr. Cipel, who listed Mr. McGreevey's largest
contributor, the
developer Charles Kushner, as the sponsor on his visa application, and
was
paid $30,000 a year for a public relations job with Mr. Kushner's
company in
2000, had actually been hired, with no fanfare, on Jan. 15, a full week
before
Ms. Flicker."

To characterize McGreevey's actions as "a taxpayer-funded cry for help"
is
one way of looking at it, but a simpler explanation is that he made the
appointment because Cipel requested it. But why would the 35-year-old
Israeli citizen,
whom McGreevey had met on a trip to Israel in 2000, want it in the
first
place?

Certainly Cipel made an effort to block anybody else from getting the
job, as
the local New Jersey media reported:

"Sources close to the task force said Cipel also played a key role in
persuading McGreevey not to tap former FBI chief Louis J. Freeh to head
the state's
Domestic Security Preparedness Task Force, which was created in
October.
Officials who served in the administration of former acting Gov. Donald
T.
DiFrancesco said Freeh had agreed to take the unpaid post if McGreevey
approved.
McGreevey declined to comment on Freeh. Several Democrats said Cipel
had argued
strongly against the choice, pointing out that the former FBI director
would be a
part-time volunteer when the governor wanted a full-time terror czar."

Whether Cipel asked for the job, or not, McGreevey very much wanted him
to
have it, as Sandy McClure of the Gannett news agency first reported in
December
of 2002:

"Using the terrorism attacks of Sept. 11 to justify the hiring, the
governor's chief lawyer wrote a letter to the U.S. Immigration and
Naturalization
Service on McGreevey's inauguration day, telling the federal agency
that New Jersey
wanted Cipel to coordinate increased security with all branches of
government
and that Cipel had the necessary 'substantial experience' in public
security."

If McGreevey was trying to hide his sexual identity, this was clearly
not the
way to do it. The appointment led to an outcry among Republican
legislators,
and a series of revelations, including this excerpt from a letter to
the INS
from the governor's chief counsel, Paul Levinsohn, describing the
nature of
Cipel's work on behalf of the Israeli government:

"In particular, his experience as chief information officer, consulate
general of Israel, involved responsibility for developing and
maintaining the
country's terrorism portfolio, keeping government authorities abreast
of terrorist
activities and threats, maintaining a database of such activities and
coordinating that information with data obtained from other agencies."

This doesnâ€™t sound like an "information officer" to me: it's a job
description more suited to an intelligence officer.

With all the emphasis on the Gay Governor as a personality, and the sex
angle, Cipel has remained a bit of a mystery. Before he resigned under
the glare of
public scrutiny, in 2002 â€“ while still retaining his 6-figure salary
â€“
McGreevey and his cohorts defended the appointment as entirely
appropriate.
Confronted with questions about why Cipel was named to the crucial post
of homeland
security czar for the state of New Jersey without undergoing a routine
background check, McGreevey replied:

"I didn't feel that kind of check was necessary. I know Golan and have
worked
with him closely. He's a super-bright and super-competent individual
who
brings a great wealth of knowledge on security.'"

Alright, then, letâ€™s do our own background check on Mr. Cipel, made
possible
by the creators of Google.com. Who the heck is Golan Cipel, anyway?

Most news reports refer to him as "a former sailor and a poet,"
buttressing
the boy-toy-with-expensive-tastes character who plays such a key
supporting
role in the story of the governor's Coming Out party. Oh, those
sailors! But the
truth is more prosaic, and more political. Cipel, far from being a
boytoy, is
a rather plain young man who looks more like an insurance salesman than
a
gigolo â€“ and sounds more like a propagandist for Ariel Sharon than
one of the boys
on Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. While the record of his public
utterances
is slim, Cipel's remarks to a Jewish congregation in New Jersey were
reported,
under somewhat trying circumstances, by the New Jersey Jewish News:

"Making a rare public appearance before a Jewish audience since leaving
public life amid questions over the propriety of his hiring by New
Jersey Gov.
James E. McGreevey, former state homeland security adviser Golan Cipel
spoke about
Israelâ€™s security situation March 21 at Congregation Anshe Chesed in
Linden.

"However, there was some confusion about how public his appearance was
to be.
Although the synagogue had announced Cipel's speech with a press
release and
invited NJ Jewish News, Cipel interrupted his lecture to ask a reporter
from
the paper to leave.

"Until that point, Cipel had been describing the plight of Israelis
living
under terror and the world's biased response to Israel."

Cipel went on to complain that the world

"â€™Treats us with a double standard.â€™ He compared the way world
governments
and the press reacted to the recent terrorist attack in Spain to
reactions to
attacks in Israel. 'There was no question [in Spain] it was a terrorist
attack.
When it comes to Israel, there's always a question,' according to the
media.
Cipel launched into discussions of the Israeli security fence and
terrorism
after casual references to his recent and controversial public career.
He
referred to inaccuracies in the press and articles he had read about
himself that
werenâ€™t true before asking NJJN to stop reporting on the speech and
declaring
that his comments were not 'on the record.'"

In his capacity as an "information officer" at the Israeli consulate,
from at
least February 1996 until April of â€™99, Cipel made appearances at the
events
of such groups as American Veterans of Israel's 1948 war, and also
churned out
an enormous volume of propaganda. He thereupon returned to Israel,
where he
served as a parliamentary aide to a Labor member of the Knesset, and
was a
public relations officer for the city of Rishon Letzion, where he met
McGreevey at
a reception.

Cipel was brought to the U.S. under the auspices of Charles Kushner,
McGreevey's chief fundraiser, whose gigantic real estate holdings made
him the rising
star among Democratic party moneybags. Cipel's job for the state
Democratic
party, doing Jewish outreach for the McGreevey campaign, pulled in a
paltry
amount of money, but Cipel's salary was generously supplemented by work
for
Kushner as a "consultant."

Kushner is quite a character. Under investigation for tax evasion and
election code violations, he recently made headlines when he sent his
sister a tape
of her husband having sex with a prostitute. The sister had been
cooperating
with prosecutors looking into the real estate mogul, and Kushner, a
noted
philanthropist, exacted retribution. Rumor has it that Kushner sought a
pardon,
apparently unsuccessfully, from the governor he thought he owned. When
the pardon
wasnâ€™t forthcoming, the threat of a suit by Cipel and his lawyers
began to
loom large: there has been speculation in the media that Kushner may be
behind
the governorâ€™s recent troubles, and this is fueled by the question of
whoâ€™s
paying the apparently penniless Cipelâ€™s lawyers, as well as the
latest reporting:

"Yesterday a McGreevey administration source said Cipel also had sought
the
governor's influence in getting a New Jersey license for a New
York-based
Jewish college.

"Adding another twist to the case, administration sources said that in
recent
days, Lowy had asked for more than money to forgo a lawsuit. Cipel's
lawyer
also asked for help in winning a license for Touro College to build the
first
private medical school in New Jersey, said a top-ranking administration
source
who spoke on condition of anonymity. Among the board members of Touro
College,
a Jewish institution based in New York, is Charles Kushner â€¦"

While the Democrats were quick to return Kushner's recent
contributions, the
multi-billion dollar real estate empire he presides over is bound to
survive
his legal problems â€“ as will his political influence in the
Democratic
stronghold of New Jersey. The only question now is whether he has video
of Cipel being
"sexually harassed" by McGreevey.

New Jersey state officials, Democrats as well as Republicans, had long
been
mystified by the apparent hold Cipel had over Governor McGreevey, and
early
news accounts are filled with hints of a "special" relationship: heck,
the guys
over at Free Republic outed McGreevey two years ago. But the homosexual
angle
is hardly the whole story. The national security aspect of this episode
ought
to frighten the heck out of anyone who believes that government efforts
to
fight terrorism on the home front are in any way reassuring. How naÃ¯ve
can you get?

But it also ought to raise a few questions beyond when is the Gay
Governor is
going to start dating again.

New Jersey is key terrain in the real war on terrorism: Flight 93 from
Newark
to San Francisco was commandeered by the terrorists on 9/11 and crashed
into
a field in Pennsylvania after passengers rushed the hijackers. The
anthrax
letters were mailed from New Jersey. Newark has recently been put on
orange alert
as the U.S. braces for a pre-election terrorist strike.

So letâ€™s forget the gory details of McGreevey's sex life, and focus
on the
question of why did Cipel lobby so hard to get the job of New Jersey's
shadow
terrorism czar, nixing Louis Freeh and hiding behind Kathryn
Flickerâ€™s skirts?
It seems like only yesterday that McGreevey was still defending Cipel,
and New
Jersey media reported:

"When the FBI issued a terrorist alert last week, it was apparently
Cipel who
first contacted McGreevey, not New Jersey's newly appointed terror
czar,
Assistant Attorney General Kathryn Flicker. Even before McGreevey's
election in
November, administration sources said, Cipel toured the state â€“
visiting
refineries, nuclear plants, bridges, and seaports â€“ to make an
inventory of security
needs. McGreevey said Cipel has already offered â€˜invaluable
insightsâ€™ into a
variety of security matters, both large and small. â€˜He's someone who
thinks
with a different set of eyes, and that is very hard to find,â€™
McGreevey said."

So this guy was out there "inspecting" nuclear plants â€“ if that
doesnâ€™t set
off alarm bells, then we might as well pack it in, because we're all
doomed.

As an Israeli citizen, Cipel couldnâ€™t have access to classified
materials â€“
except through the "back door," so to speak, via McGreevey. Did
McGreevey balk
at the arrangement, and transfer Cipel to another job? That, at any
rate, is
when their "relationship," whatever it was, apparently began to go
sour.

If Cipel maintains that he consistently refused McGreevey's advances,
then
how can he explain the series of jobs the governor found for him after
he left
public service? If the sexual relationship was nonexistent, then what
power did
Cipel have over the governor? In any case, he exercised that power in
order
to penetrate the U.S. counter-terrorism apparatus â€“ on whose behalf
is not
altogether clear, but Israeli organized crime and the Mossad are among
the prime
suspects. After all, it would hardly be the first time the latter used
sex as a
lure: isn't that how they got Mordechai Vanunu?

â€“Justin Raimondo

+++++++
A sick man! Don't you think?
Jay Lefkowitz is now Deputy assistant to the President for Domestic
Policy.

"Deep down, I believe that a little anti-Semitism is a good thing for
the
Jews - reminds us who we are." --Jay Lefkowitz (NYT Magazine. Feb.12,
1995. Page
65).

Alpha

Israeli at Heart of N.J. Gay Scandal Returns Home
2 hours, 5 minutes ago
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=615&e=3&u=/nm/20040817/pl_nm/israel_usa_governor_dc

By Megan Goldin

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - An Israeli at the center of a scandal that led New Jersey Governor James McGreevey to quit over a homosexual affair returned home Wednesday complaining of a "difficult period" in his first public remarks on the case.

Reuters Photo

Golan Cipel, a former aide to McGreevey, told reporters outside his parents' home near Tel Aviv that he wanted to prepare for a legal battle against the governor over alleged sexual harassment.

McGreevey's spokesman has denied the governor, who announced last week he would resign over an affair with an unnamed man, sexually harassed Cipel or tried to buy his silence.

"I have gone through a difficult period. I came home to be with my family and friends," an unshaven Cipel, clad in jeans and a polo shirt, told reporters in his hometown of Rishon Lezion.

He said he could not divulge any more details of his sexual harassment accusations, pending legal action.

"Sexual harassment is very traumatic. Those who have not experienced it cannot know just how difficult it is," a spokeswoman, Einat Oren, quoted Cipel as saying.

"I came to Israel to renew my strength together with my family and my friends ... and I intend to return to the United States in the next few weeks so the truth will come to light," Cipel said in a statement.

McGreevey, who earlier this year said he opposed gay marriage, told a news conference Thursday he had had a consensual affair with another man and would resign on Nov. 15 to avoid rumors and "threats of disclosure."

Cipel worked as campaign aide for McGreevey during his election campaign and then in early 2002 took a $110,000-a-year job as New Jersey's homeland security adviser.

But Cipel stepped down after questions about his credentials -- he served as a lieutenant on an Israeli naval gunboat during his compulsory army service -- and about how a foreigner without security clearance could be an effective security adviser.

Cipel denied being gay and trying to blackmail McGreevey in an interview he gave to Israel's Yedioth Ahronoth daily on Sunday.

"While in the employ of one of the most powerful politicians in the state, I was the victim of repeated attempts by him to exploit me sexually ... He came on to me again and again, to the point where I was afraid to be alone with him," he said.

McGreevey, 47, took office in January 2002. His four-year term will be completed by Democrat Richard Codey, the current president of the New Jersey state senate.

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Ex-McGreevey aide's credentials exaggerated ---Published in the Asbury Park Press 12/22/02

http://www.app.com/app2001/story/0,21133,656898,00.html
The Israeli national's expertise was in public relations.
By SANDY MC CLURE
GANNETT STATE BUREAU

TRENTON -- Despite his statements to the contrary, Gov. McGreevey, from the beginning, intended to make his now-departed Israeli adviser and friend, whose expertise was public relations, the state's point man on terrorism, documents obtained last week under the federal Freedom of Information Act show.

Using the terrorism attacks of Sept. 11 to justify the hiring, the governor's chief lawyer wrote a letter to the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service on McGreevey's inauguration day, telling the federal agency that New Jersey wanted Cipel to coordinate increased security with all branches of government and that Cipel had the necessary "substantial experience" in public security.

The letter was part of a petition by the state for a specialty work visa that had to show Cipel was qualified for what he was being hired to do.

Israeli military expert and journalist Yossi Melman said the letter "more than exaggerates" Cipel's experience and capabilities in the Israeli Defense Force.

"The state of New Jersey's application (to the immigration service) in particular struck me as full of chutzpah," Melman said. "It is rather surprising that the governor went out of his way by using the pretext that his Israeli friend is a terrorist expert in order to accommodate him. I find it especially troubling to use the horrible events of 9/11 as a justification for the nomination of Golan Cipel to a highly important security position which he was not qualified for."

Asked whether the public was misled about the role Cipel was slated to play in New Jersey's security, McGreevey spokesman Kevin Davitt said, "Not to my knowledge."

"This is what we believed his (Cipel's) responsibilities were to be at that time," Davitt said of the letter. "As the administration moved forward, there was a determination made that we needed someone with better experience."

Davitt said that the INS was not misled about Cipel's qualifications.

As for whether Cipel was qualified for the security post, Davitt said, "I think it was found there were probably others more suited to do that job."

Cipel did not respond to requests for comment.

When Cipel quit last August after a Gannett New Jersey report on the exaggeration of his security credentials, the governor blamed the exaggeration on a poorly worded biography issued by McGreevey's office.

But the governor's chief counsel, Paul Levinsohn, who served as McGreevey's campaign finance chairman and is a longtime confidant of the governor, was detailed when he wrote to the federal immigration service and described how Cipel was qualified to be the governor's point man on security.

As McGreevey's special adviser on issues of homeland security and public safety, Cipel's duty would be disseminating and coordinating public safety programs with other state departments and branches of government, Levinsohn wrote.

Although early news accounts of the Israeli's hiring by the state of New Jersey pointed out that Cipel, who is not an American citizen, could not qualify for federal security clearance, that was ignored in the Levinsohn description of Cipel's duties.

The Levinsohn letter said Cipel would coordinate security issues between the governor's office and the New Jersey Domestic Security Preparedness Task Force, State Police, the New Jersey National Guard, the FBI and the Armed Forces.'Exaggerated'

Assemblyman Guy Gregg, R-Morris, said the Levinsohn letter was crafted to place Cipel in a job he was not qualified to do.

"Basically, they exaggerated at a level that most people would find much closer to a mistruth," he said. "It is almost admitted by this administration that he is not an expert in security. He doesn't have years and years experience in it. He wasn't going to be able to pass the simplest of four-way background checks to be a state trooper, let alone talk to one."

Gannett New Jersey obtained the Levinsohn letter last week from the U.S. Department of Justice through a federal Freedom of Information Act request filed last summer with the immigration service. The requests traditionally take months for a response.

Levinsohn has been the subject of his own recent controversy over the money he earned, just before McGreevey took office, from a billboard company whose procedures in obtaining a lucrative bill-board deal in South Jersey have been questioned. The FBI is in-vestigating that deal.

In the U.S. Department of Labor application, dated Jan. 9, before McGreevey took office, Levinsohn listed his title as assistant attorney general, a courtesy title the administration said he was given, and sworn-in to, during the transition period. Cipel's potential employer is listed as the state Department of Law and Public Safety.

Davitt said the letter could not be found in state files, but Levinsohn had a copy at his home.

To hire Cipel for the homeland security and public safety post, the state needed to show that Cipel had a bachelor's degree in an area related to security or collegiate-level expertise in the field, according to U.S Labor Department expert Stephen Stefanko.

In the state's application on Cipel's behalf for his H-1B work visa for a specialty occupation, Levinsohn said Cipel had the necessary background in the areas of security and anti-terrorism initiatives.

From 1995 to 1999, while earning his bachelor's and master's degrees in communications from the New York Institute of Technology, Cipel worked for the Consulate General of Israel in New York, where he had the title of chief information officer.

In his letter, Levinsohn described Cipel's work at the consul:

"In particular, his experience as chief information officer, consulate general of Israel, involved responsibility for developing and maintaining the country's terrorism portfolio, keeping government authorities abreast of terrorist activities and threats, maintaining a database of such activities and coordinating that information with data obtained from other agencies."

But former Consul Collett Avital, a member of the Israeli parliament and the official in charge of the consulate while Cipel worked there, told Gannett, "He (Cipel) was not involved in anything related to terrorism."

The Levinsohn letter also stated that "as a naval officer in the Israel Defense Force, Mr. Cipel functioned as a special operations officer and was appointed as media adviser, disseminating data on military operations and anti-terrorism measures to the media while insuring that sensitive information was not disclosed. As such, he is well-qualified in the areas of information gathering, dissemination and sharing with other agencies."

Cipel served for five years in the Israel Defense Force with a Navy patrol boat unit before serving a 10-year stint in the reserves at the Homeland Command, where he reached the rank of lieutenant.

Melman likened Cipel's military service to serving five years in the U.S. Navy followed by 10 years in the National Guard Reserves. Service in the Homeland Command is noncombatant duty known in Israel as an easy, comfortable place to do military service, Melman said.

Levinsohn told the INS that Cipel would be paid $80,000. As one of McGreevey's highest advisers, his salary was $110,000.

When Cipel's appointment first came under fire early this year, McGreevey said Cipel was never intended to be the state's official terrorism leader, only a personal adviser on the issue.

His security role from the beginning, McGreevey said in August, was to do an exhaustive evaluation of published best practices on the subject.

In the August interview, McGreevey argued that Cipel had been hired in the role of adviser to the governor on numerous is-sues and that his first assignment was security.

McGreevey initially responded to the criticism concerning Cipel by taking him off the security issue and moving him to a general adviser.

INS records show that the state applied in March to change Cipel's specialty designation from special consul to the governor on security issues to policy adviser. The March letter, authored by Levinsohn, does not mention security issues or Cipel's security qualifications.

After Cipel resigned in August, McGreevey recommended him for a job at the politically connected public relations firm of MWW Group in East Rutherford. An official there said Cipel only stayed a month because the company and Cipel did not agree on the amount of time he was expected to spend in the office.

With another recommendation from McGreevey, Cipel has been hired at State Street Partners, a small Trenton lobbying firm whose partners include McGreevey's best friend, Rahway Mayor James Kennedy.

McGreevey has described Cipel as a very good friend whose advice he still seeks and who still does outreach for the governor to the Jewish community.

Before joining the McGreevey administration, Cipel was part-time director of Jewish outreach for the Democratic State Committee during McGreevey's election campaign at a salary listed on the INS application at $30,000 a year. He also was a part-time public relations associate for McGreevey's top campaign contributor, at an additional $30,000 a year, INS records show.

The contributor, Charles Kushner, has since been appointed to the board of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

McGreevey said he met Cipel during a 2000 trip to Israel, where Cipel served as spokesman for the city of Rishon Lezion.

Kushner's firm filed the first INS application for Cipel in the fall of 2000, and he re-entered the United States in February 2001, according to INS records.

Lawyers for Kushner's firm and the Democratic State Committee also filed letters with INS applications for his work visas, but the letters made no mention of his security qualifications.

Click Here to subscribe to the Asbury Park Press

Alpha · Posted: Wed Aug 18, 2004 5:25 pm Post subject: This could end in sanctions

w w w . h a a r e t z . c o m

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Last update - 02:12 16/08/2004
This could end in sanctions
By Akiva Eldar

Why is it that there isn't a single juicy story, from New Zealand to New Jersey, in which Israel - a country that is about the size of the Kakadu National Park in Northern Australia - isn't mixed up? Don't be surprised if some guy turns up soon with the "scoop" that the young fellow from Rishon Letzion is a secret agent of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's who was planted in the entourage of the Democratic governor of New Jersey, James McGreevey, in order to improve the mood at United States President George W. Bush's reelection headquarters.

Truth to tell, there is something admirable about the extent of the restraint of the prime minister, who cannot be faulted (unlike some of his predecessors) and takes care only to whisper his prayers for the success of the incumbent president. However, there are situations in which even Sharon's good angel in the White House can't - and perhaps does not want to - rescue him from the stew he has cooked for himself.

Such a situation is the combination of the disengagement plan, the dismantling of the outposts and the High Court of Justice ruling regarding the route of the separation fence. What the three have in common is that they all involve promises that the prime minister has made, privately and publicly, to Bush. Breaking any one of them constitutes a direct blow to the trustworthiness of a candidate whose trustworthiness is in any case in doubt. Although Bush is bothered by more pressing problems than the situation of the Palestinians, like the unemployment rate at home and the guerrilla war in Iraq, precisely for that reason, the last thing he needs now is for the disengagement plan to crash on the shards of the road map.

Moderate Arab leaders and the heads of the European Union are demanding of the Americans what the latter are demanding of their Israeli protege - the implementation of everything that Sharon himself has proposed and promised. No less and no more. After all, the disengagement plan is not an Egyptian invention, it wasn't French President Jacques Chirac who publicly declared that a country where law prevails cannot condone illegal settlements and the International Court of Justice in The Hague was not the first to have ruled that the route of the fence is needlessly harmful to the Palestinian population.

Israel cannot fool all of the world all of the time, including itself. Even the forgiving Americans are insulted when they find out that their friends from Israel think they are idiots. What is Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz thinking when he says that he is only waiting for the latest aerial photographs of the territories in order to show the outposters who's in charge? Every child knows that for a few shekels one can download from the Internet satellite photos with such high resolution that it is possible to locate a flowerpot in the yard of a mobile home.

And Sharon himself? Does he really believe the world will stand still until he finds a job for Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom? The prime minister really should ask the folks at Shalom's ministry about what already awaits Israel at the approaching United Nations General Assembly.

According to reports that have come in from the Israeli delegation at the UN, Israel's decision to ignore the General Assembly resolution that called upon it to implement the ruling of the Hague tribunal has not removed the issue from the agenda; after the United States imposes a veto on the proposed decision that is emerging at the Security Council - to impose sanctions on Israel, under Provision 7, in order to force it to dismantle the fence - the Arabs are planning to toss the ball back to the General Assembly. Under the regulations, the General Assembly is entitled to call upon the member states and international organizations to impose sanctions on Israel. This is what happened in 1982, after the passage of the Golan Law that extended Israeli law to the Syrian heights.

Although the resolution by the General Assembly (as opposed to a Security Council resolution) is not binding, sweeping support for sanctions on Israel will put it into the family of leper nations. As in the previous vote in the General Assembly, this time too the key is in the hands of Europe. Bush's apron, large as it might be, is not large enough to cover a retreat from the disengagement, along with the evasion of the dismantling of the outposts, along with the continued postponement of the rectification of the fence's route, along with the ignoring of The Hague court, along with the scorn for the EU, along with the insulting of France.

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Alpha · Posted: Wed Aug 18, 2004 8:31 pm Post subject: McGreevey Donor Pleads Guilty

The following articles appear at:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/fc?cid=34&tmpl=fc&in=US&cat=James_McGreevey

This Zionist Jew (traitor to America) Kushner arranged for the Mossad operative to come to the USA to infiltrate the New Jersey government at the highest level by sponsoring his visa:

McGreevey Donor Pleads Guilty

53 minutes ago

By JEFFREY GOLD

NEWARK, N.J. - A major donor to embattled Gov. James E. McGreevey pleaded guilty Wednesday to tax violations and charges stemming from a witness tampering scheme in which he was accused of having a prostitute seduce his own brother-in-law.

Real estate mogul Charles Kushner pleaded guilty in federal court to 18 charges, including retaliating against a federal witness and violating campaign finance laws.

Kushner also pleaded guilty to 16 counts of filing false tax returns through various real estate partnerships. McGreevey was not implicated in the criminal complaint against Kushner.

Kushner, flanked by his two attorneys, stood before U.S. District Judge Jose L. Linares and answered a nearly hourlong series of questions.

Kushner was accused of hiring a prostitute to have sex with his brother-in-law, William Schulder, who was a cooperating witness in an investigation into whether Kushner violated campaign contribution laws and committed tax fraud.

Prosecutors said Kushner ordered the sex act videotaped and a copy of the tape sent to his own sister, Schulder's wife.

Another Kushner associate was approached by a second prostitute but declined the advances, authorities said.

The court action came six days after McGreevey announced he was a "gay American," said he had an affair with a man and that he intends to resign Nov. 15. Sources close to McGreevey have identified the man as Golan Cipel, an Israeli who held a state homeland security job in 2002.

The plea deal does not require Kushner to cooperate with investigators. While Wednesday's guilty pleas are unrelated to the McGreevey case, Kushner sponsored the work visa that allowed Cipel to come to the United States and gave him a $30,000-a-year job in public relations with one of his companies.

Cipel maintains he is heterosexual and, through his lawyer, has denied McGreevey's claims and accused the governor of sexual harassment.

When he announced last week that he was gay, McGreevey said he planned to step down Nov. 15. By staying in office beyond Sept. 3, he would stave off the possibility of a special election Nov. 2 to fill the balance of his term, which expires in January 2006.

Many Republicans and even some of the governor's fellow Democrats were urging McGreevey to step down sooner.

Sen. Jon Corzine (news, bio, voting record), also a Democrat, discussed the possibility of being the party's candidate in a special election with state Democratic leaders. Whether or not the New Jersey senator runs for governor "is something he has to consider," Corzine spokesman David Wald said Wednesday.

If there is an election, several Republicans have expressed an interest in running, and party leaders are looking to veterans like former Govs. Christie Whitman or Tom Kean.

Whitman did not expressly rule out running in a special election. "I think it really depends on who's running on the other side," she said.

Kean, who now heads the Sept. 11 Commission, said he is not interested in running again. "I'm doing this now, not that," Kean said after a hearing before the House Homeland Security Committee in Washington.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kushner will plead guilty today to tax and campaign charges
Key Democratic contributor to admit retaliation against witness
Wednesday, August 18, 2004
BY JOHN P. MARTIN AND ROBERT RUDOLPH
Star-Ledger Staff
Multimillionaire developer Charles Kushner has agreed to plead guilty today to federal tax and campaign finance crimes, and will admit that he retaliated against a government witness by luring him into a videotaped tryst with a prostitute, according to his attorneys and others familiar with the deal.

The agreement calls for Kushner, a prominent Democratic Party contributor, to serve between 18 and 24 months in prison. He is scheduled to appear this morning before U.S. District Judge Jose Linares in Newark.

The plea follows a 16-month investigation by FBI and IRS agents into Kushner's financial affairs, including the millions of dollars he has showered on candidates and charities. It also marks the low point of a spectacular downfall for one of New Jersey's most successful entrepreneurs. It comes just days after the similarly stunning, but unrelated, resignation of Kushner's biggest political benefactor, Gov. James E. McGreevey.

Under the terms of the deal, Kushner will admit to retaliating against Esther and William Schulder, his estranged sister and brother-in-law, for cooperating with federal investigators. Prosecutors charged that Kushner arranged for a prostitute to seduce William Schulder, then sent a videotape of the encounter to Schulder's wife as humiliating payback.

Kushner also plans to acknowledge that he defrauded the IRS of $300,000 by improperly claiming about $1 million in charitable donations. And he will plead guilty to filing false statements with the Federal Election Commission to conceal unauthorized campaign contributions.

"He is, in fact, acknowledging that what he did was wrong and wants to bring the entire matter to closure," defense attorneys Alfred DeCotiis and Jeffrey Smith, who negotiated the plea, said in a statement. "He doesn't want to put his wife and family through a lengthy criminal proceeding or to jeopardize the future of the employees of Kushner Companies."

Greg Reinert, a spokesman for U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie, would not acknowledge any plea deal. But late yesterday, the office issued a media advisory announcing that an "important development" in a major investigation would occur at a hearing today before Linares.

Kushner, a 50-year-old Livingston resident and son of Holocaust survivors, had quietly become a dominant force in New Jersey politics, business and philanthropy in the past decade. His family-run business in Florham Park grew to own or manage more than $1 billion worth of property, and his generosity to Democrats, particularly McGreevey, gained him unfettered access to political heavyweights. He is also a fervent supporter, personally and financially, of the region's Jewish community.

Two years ago, Kushner's contacts appeared to have paid off. McGreevey named him as his choice for chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the quasi-governmental agency that controls the region's major airports, tunnels, bridges and former World Trade Center site.

But an intense family feud led to Kushner's undoing. His older brother, Murray, alleged in a lawsuit that Kushner had pilfered the company coffers to fund a lavish lifestyle, make political contributions and defraud business partners. His claims sparked the criminal investigation.

Last summer, authorities said, Kushner plotted to retaliate against Schulder and Robert Yontef, a former Kushner Companies accountant, after both sided with his brother and gave information to federal agents.

According to the FBI complaint filed against him, Kushner offered two men $25,000 to help him lure Schulder and Yontef, both married men, into compromising positions with prostitutes. Sources told The Star-Ledger that the intermediaries were East Orange Police Capt. James O'Toole, who met Kushner through a mutual friend and became his jogging partner, and O'Toole's brother, Thomas, a private detective near Utica, N.Y.

When the O'Tooles failed to find a prostitute to participate, Kushner allegedly recruited a New York City call girl whom he personally knew.

In December, the prostitute, who has not been named, approached Schulder as he left the Time to Eat diner in Bridgewater, authorities said. She said her car had broken down and asked for a lift to a nearby motel.

Schulder drove her to the Red Bull Inn on Route 22 in Bridgewater, took her phone number and allegedly returned the next day to have sex with her. Sources said Thomas O'Toole secretly videotaped the encounter from an adjoining room. A similar plot to seduce Yontef with a different prostitute failed when Yontef spurned the woman's advances, prosecutors said.

In May, six months after the attempted seductions, Kushner allegedly ordered the O'Tooles to send a copy of the Schulder sex tape to Schulder's family. Kushner wanted the tape to arrive around the same time the Schulders were hosting an engagement party for their son, officials said.

But the plan backfired. After receiving the tape, the Schulders' lawyer gave it to the FBI, and agents scrambled to link it to Kushner. He was charged last month with obstruction of justice, retaliation against witnesses and conspiring to promote interstate prostitution.

Though Kushner did not agree to cooperate with investigators as part of his plea, sources said the deal substantially lessens the possible penalties. If indicted and convicted on all counts, Kushner faced a probable prison term of at least five years under federal sentencing guidelines, sources said.

The guidelines in the proposed plea call for a range of 18 to 24 months, but the term will be decided by Linares, the sentencing judge.

The federal investigation into Kushner's companies continues and could still snare some of his associates, the sources said. Neither the O'Tooles nor the prostitutes have been charged in the case. Prosecutors have declined to say if they were cooperating.

Kushner had been free on $5 million bail secured by his homes in Livingston and Elberon. He also was subject to electronic monitoring from pretrial officials, but two weeks ago a magistrate judge let him remove the ankle bracelet used to track his whereabouts.

Kushner's name also has come up in the latest McGreevey scandal. It was Kushner who sponsored the work visa for Golan Cipel, the Israeli citizen at the center of McGreevey's announcement last week that he is gay and would resign because of an extramarital affair he had with a man. Cipel has been identified as that man.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

HOW IT ALL UNRAVELED
He had it all. The job, the family, the political future. Then came a phone call, and Jim McGreevey was finished.
Sunday, August 15, 2004
BY MARK MUELLER AND JOHN P. MARTIN
Star-Ledger Staff
Few events energize politicians like a presidential convention. Gov. James E. McGreevey was no exception.

After arriving in Boston three weeks ago, New Jersey's top Democrat bounded through the gathering. He showered hugs and handshakes on friends, drew a standing ovation from his party's delegates and packed his schedule with high-visibility events.

There were few signs that McGreevey's world was crashing down in spectacular and historic fashion.

On July 23, two days before the opening of the Democratic National Convention, a lawyer from New York had phoned the governor's office.

No one had heard of the attorney, Allen Lowy, but he said he represented Golan Cipel, an Israeli national who resigned two years ago from his $110,000 state job as a McGreevey aide. Now Cipel was threatening to file a lawsuit detailing sexual allegations against the governor. According to McGreevey confidants, he wanted millions of dollars to remain quiet.

Within days, Lowy had an answer: There would be no payoff.

McGreevey was already bedeviled by a slew of recent scandals. In the past month alone, two of his fund-raisers, Charles Kushner and David D'Amiano, had been snared in separate federal criminal probes. But the governor feared a scandal involving Cipel would be something his political career could not survive.

On Monday, July 26, the second evening of the convention, McGreevey summoned a few of his closest advisers to his suite in the Omni Parker House Hotel. After a weekend of forced enthusiasm, the governor finally broke down.

"He was absolutely devastated," said a person familiar with the scene.

In the room were McGreevey's chief of staff Jamie Fox and chief counsel Michael DeCotiis, who was not supposed to be in Boston but came up after meeting that day with Cipel's lawyers. The news was not good: Cipel's demands were steep, and he would go public if they were not met.

McGreevey told the small circle he wanted to resign immediately. There was much debate. Finally, McGreevey relented. He would not resign, but he would not seek re-election.

He returned to the convention with the problem of the threatened Cipel lawsuit, and the possibility of its devastating fallout, still unresolved. What was resolved was that McGreevey's first term as governor, the position he had spent most of his life preparing for, would be his last.

Seeds planted four years before had brought a bitter harvest.

A MAN WITH TWO LIVES

On a Monday night in February 2000, McGreevey sat down to dinner at an elegant Italian restaurant in Woodbridge, the Middlesex County town where he served as mayor. With him was his girlfriend of three years, Dina Matos, the pretty, petite spokeswoman for a Newark hospital.

Trattoria Venezia went by a different name back then. So did McGreevey, who had not yet instructed reporters to refer to him as James. At the time, he was known simply as Jim, the rising Democratic star whose lunch-bucket populism had brought him to within a percentage point of toppling Gov. Christie Whitman in the 1997 election.

McGreevey, divorced from his first wife and the father of a young daughter, quietly proposed marriage during that Valentine's Day dinner, his action so low-key the waiters learned about it only by reading it in the newspaper afterward. Matos accepted.

Three weeks later, during a tour of Israel with other New Jersey politicians, McGreevey would meet Golan Cipel, the man with whom he would engage in a sexual affair, who he would place on the state payroll and call in political favors to help, the man who ultimately would lead to McGreevey's undoing as governor.

Cipel, a published poet and former sailor in the Israeli navy, had a taste for politics.

He had once served as a legislative aide to a member of Israel's parliament, and in the late 1990s, as he studied communications at New York Institute of Technology, he worked as a spokesman for the Israeli consulate in Manhattan.

Now, at 31, he was working as the chief spokesman for the mayor of his hometown, Rishon Lezion, on the outskirts of Tel Aviv.

David Mallach, an official with New Jersey's United Jewish Federation of MetroWest, introduced Cipel to McGreevey during a political reception at the local arts center.

"I mentioned that this is the Democratic candidate or something like that, and I guess they started talking," Mallach recalled. He thought nothing more of it.

Six months later, in September 2000, Cipel was in New Jersey.

While the move didn't surprise the young Israeli's mother Leah, who told The Star-Ledger in 2002 that her son "loves New York and the United States better than Israel," it would soon raise eyebrows in Garden State political circles.

McGreevey asked his biggest political donor, developer Charles Kushner, to sponsor Cipel's work visa to the United States. For Kushner, Cipel performed public relations duties, earning $30,000 a year.

The Democratic State Committee paid Cipel an additional $30,000 to work on McGreevey's gubernatorial campaign as outreach coordinator to the state's Jewish community.

A PUZZLING CHOICE

Why, some wondered, had McGreevey tapped an outsider for a post that required intimate knowledge of New Jersey's political landscape?

"Golan's arrival here was very odd," said David Twersky, the former editor of the New Jersey Jewish News, based in Whippany, and now a columnist for the New York Sun. "McGreevey didn't know him very well, and Golan didn't really know New Jersey Jews. It didn't make sense. He didn't know Rabbi X from Rabbi Y, or which donor is nice and which donor is not.

"So right from the get-go, there was something that didn't add up."

At Woodbridge town hall, McGreevey instructed a member of his staff to arrange a car, a driver's license and an apartment for Cipel. The staffer found the apartment, one-tenth of a mile from McGreevey's own condominium, through another major political donor, developer David Halpern, whose family owned the complex.

Less than a month after Cipel's September 2000 arrival in the United States, McGreevey married Matos at Washington's Hay-Adams Hotel, overlooking the White House. For the publicity-hungry candidate, it was an unusually quiet affair, with few guests.

Over the next year, as McGreevey won the Democratic nomination and then the governor's office, Cipel remained out of the headlines.

That would soon change.

As McGreevey arranged his transition to the Statehouse, choosing aides and Cabinet members, Cipel was frequently seen at the governor's side.

In early December 2001, two ranking administration sources said, Cipel accompanied McGreevey to Las Vegas, where the governor-elect addressed the annual convention of the AFL-CIO. McGreevey's daughter with Matos was born within days of his return.

During the same month, McGreevey made it known to his top advisers that he planned to appoint Cipel his homeland security adviser, a highly sensitive post after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The idea met immediate resistance. According to a transition official familiar with McGreevey's plans, Gary Taffet, who had been tapped as chief of staff, complained to McGreevey that Cipel lacked the credentials for the job.

McGreevey, the official said, eventually persuaded Taffet to accept Cipel. The move quickly backfired.

Within weeks of Cipel's Jan. 15 appointment, Republicans, some Democrats and the media were demanding to know how a public relations man was qualified to protect New Jerseyans from terrorism. Cipel repeatedly declined interviews, and the governor repeatedly defended him.

"Golan is smart, incisive, hard-working and trustworthy, and he brought a unique point of view to the work he does," McGreevey said at the time.

The governor pointed to Cipel's military service, his former work with the Israeli parliament and his time with the Israeli consulate in New York as positives. A biography circulated to reporters by the administration noted Cipel, while at the consulate, "oversaw terrorist-related matters."

Former Consul General Colette Avital told The Star-Ledger in 2002 that Cipel did nothing of the sort.

"He did PR work, and he did it pretty well," Avital said.

The Star-Ledger also reported that neither the Secret Service nor the FBI would share information with Cipel because, as a foreigner, he could not be granted security clearance.

At about the same time, it emerged that Cipel's pay had been bumped to $110,000, making his salary the fifth-highest in the governor's office, within six weeks of his appointment.

Emboldened Republicans, and a growing number of Democrats, demanded Cipel be reassigned. In February 2002, state Sen. William Gormley (R-Atlantic) threatened to block McGreevey's political appointments if Cipel did not come before the Senate Judiciary Committee for questioning about his background.

Whispers that the two men were involved in a sexual relationship became open suggestions.

For years, acquaintances of McGreevey had wondered about his sexuality, despite his two marriages. Those thoughts were rarely voiced, and certainly not openly.

Now they were echoing off the walls. According to several former administration officials, none of whom would speak for attribution, legislators asked staff members whether McGreevey was gay and whether he was involved with Cipel. They denied it.

Reporters asked the same questions, receiving the same denials.

In early March, McGreevey quieted the speculation -- and the clamor over Cipel's qualifications -- by transferring him to a post without security responsibilities. Cipel maintained his salary and his personal staff of two.

McGreevey declined to say what Cipel's new duties would be, and while reporters continued to ask about the aide, he temporarily dropped from the front page.

The stories resumed by summer. What was Cipel working on? McGreevey wouldn't say. By July, the hornet's nest had again been stirred, prompting Cipel to visit Twersky, the former editor of the Jewish News, who had become something of a confidant.

"He came to me and said, 'It's really bad. They're not letting go. They're hounding me and hounding me. I need you to help me,'" Twersky said.

The editor obliged, writing an editorial asking legislators, the press and the public to leave Cipel in peace.

It didn't help.

By then, Twersky had developed his own theory about the situation, and he confronted Cipel with it during a phone conversation.

"I said, 'You know what this is about. They think you're McGreevey's lover,'" Twersky said. "And he said, 'It's totally not true. It's totally not true.'"

The denials rang false to Twersky.

"There was no other rational explanation for all that had happened," he said.

SUSPICIONS ACCELERATE

In early August, the rumor mill went into high gear after The Star-Ledger reported that months earlier, during McGreevey's transition into office, the governor had accompanied Cipel on a walk-through of a West Windsor condominium Cipel was preparing to buy.

The revelation threw the governor's office into crisis mode.

"They got really scared," said Twersky, who had been meeting with McGreevey frequently during that time. "Now it's brought the attention of the public to the doorstep, and the next step is the bedroom."

Within days, Twersky said, McGreevey and Cipel met with well-known public relations specialist Howard Rubenstein for advice. The meeting was set up by Kushner, a longtime Rubenstein client, Twersky said.

"Howard Rubenstein told them, 'The bleeding isn't going to stop. You're cut in a thousand places,'" Twersky said. Rubenstein told Cipel he had to resign.

Shortly afterward, Twersky met with McGreevey on an unrelated issue. The governor, he said, seemed deeply saddened by Rubenstein's advice.

"What do they want?" Twersky said McGreevey asked him. "Why are they hurting Golan? What did he ever do to hurt anybody?"

"I told him, 'You know what this is about,'" Twersky said, "and he said, 'No, I don't.'"

"I said, 'This is about you and Golan being gay,'" Twersky said, adding that McGreevey responded: "That old thing? I can't believe they're bringing up that old thing again."

He said McGreevey denied he was gay and thanked him for writing the editorial in the Jewish News. The meeting was over.

Cipel's government service was, too. The aide resigned Aug. 14, though he received pay for two more weeks.

Cipel dropped from sight without a word, but he continued to receive help from McGreevey.

Two people familiar with the governor's assistance to Cipel said McGreevey instructed Taffet, his chief of staff, to get Cipel a job with the MWW Group, a public relations firm in Bergen County. Cipel worked there a month, drawing ire from management and co-workers for his lackadaisical work ethic, despite a $120,000 salary.

Cipel next landed at State Street Partners, a Trenton lobbying firm where McGreevey's best friend, Rahway Mayor Jim Kennedy, is a partner.

Rocco Iossa, managing partner of the firm, has repeatedly refused to comment on Cipel's employment. Iossa again declined to comment yesterday.

But one person familiar with Cipel's work both at the governor's office and the lobbying firm said Cipel, from the very start, would try to convince his superiors that he was out hunting for business when he was actually doing nothing.

"There was a problem almost immediately," the person said. "He wasn't coming to work."

When at the office, the person said, Cipel routinely boasted of relationships with multiple women as a way of defusing the rampant speculation about his relationship with the governor.

"He tried to flaunt girlfriends," the person said.

On April 28, 2003, Cipel was fired.

Inside the Statehouse, aides to McGreevey wondered if the governor would again call in a political favor to help Cipel.

"We didn't know when it would stop," said the administration staffer who worked with Cipel.

But it did appear to stop.

It could not be determined if Cipel worked in the several months that followed his dismissal from State Street Partners, but he does not appear to have landed work at McGreevey's behest.

In late summer, Cipel turned to Shelly Zeiger, a Trenton businessman. Zeiger is a McGreevey backer, but he insists he gave Cipel a job with his import-export business only because he had met him several times and thought highly of him.

Again, it didn't work out.

Cipel didn't show up for work every day, Zeiger said, though he did report to the office when the businessman summoned him.

"We agreed it would be best if he looked for something that was of more interest to him," Zeiger said.

Cipel left the job early this year.

Shortly afterward, Zeiger said, Cipel sold his condo in West Windsor. An address for him soon turned up in Manhattan, near Columbus Circle. Reporters in recent days have been turned away by a doorman. The phone has gone unanswered.

The administration staffer who worked with Cipel said he wasn't entirely surprised he has popped up again, this time with damning allegations about McGreevey.

"We knew we hadn't heard the last of him," the staffer said. "In some way, shape or form -- because of his strange relationship with the governor -- we knew he was coming back."

THE RETURN OF CIPEL

The call last month from Cipel's attorney was the first time anyone had heard his name mentioned in months. News of the claim was limited to only a handful of the governor's closest and most trusted advisers. The circle included, among others, chief of staff Fox and chief counsel DeCotiis.

They in turn called William Lawler, a Washington, D.C., criminal lawyer representing the governor's office in a federal probe of a Democratic fund-raiser.

McGreevey took pains to keep the Cipel dilemma quiet, at least for a time. At the Boston convention, he stood smiling before cheering delegates with U.S. Sen. Jon Corzine. The two men raised their clasped hands above their heads, as in victory, and Corzine declared McGreevey to be "our governor."

Besides presiding over New Jersey delegation events, McGreevey participated in panel discussions and was one of a handful of officials to speak at a luncheon of gay rights advocates.

But some sensed that something was amiss.

"The governor just didn't seem totally himself," one senior administration official recalled. The same official said that the normally unflappable Jamie Fox "was totally preoccupied."

Three days after the convention ended, McGreevey had returned to his duties in New Jersey when news broke of a possible terror threat against the Prudential building in Newark.

"What is important is that we not live our lives in fear," the governor said. "We have been preparing for this day for the past 2 1/2 years."

At the same time, his private lawyers were conducting settlement negotiations with Lowy, Cipel's attorney. Sources said lawyers representing the two sides talked in at least a half-dozen phone calls and a face-to-face meeting in New York, but they reached no resolution.

A Quinnipiac poll released that Thursday reported that McGreevey's job approval rating had dropped 7 percentage points since June and hovered just 4 points above its low.

Toward the end of the week, press officers at state departments and agencies in Trenton received orders from the governor's office to find and release positive news of any kind.

DISASTER LOOMS

On Saturday, Aug. 7, state Sen. Raymond Lesniak was relaxing at his summer home in Curtis Point when the governor called. McGreevey said they needed to speak immediately, and he was en route to the house.

"When he said he had to see me in person, I knew it wasn't good news," Lesniak recalled in an interview.

The governor's security detail waited outside as McGreevey entered the house. Lesniak uncorked a bottle of Bordeaux and the two men sat. McGreevey then explained what he called the extortion scheme against him, Lesniak said. The senator declined to elaborate on details of their talk. But as the conversation ended, Lesniak still did not know if McGreevey was gay.

Over the next few days, the weight of the scandal would become apparent. Lobbyists began to hear stirrings of a looming political bombshell.

On Monday afternoon, Fox was seen leaving McGreevey's Statehouse office after what sounded like a heated debate behind closed doors. Fox's face was red.

"He was rattled," an observer said, "and Jamie Fox never gets rattled."

The public, however, remained in the dark. On Tuesday, McGreevey traveled to Wanaque to sign a critical piece of his agenda as governor, a bill protecting the northern Highlands from development.

Surrounded by applauding politicians, two former governors, a handful of environmentalists and two Girl Scout troops, the governor smiled as he hailed "a landmark day."

But he also seemed distracted. He fumbled through his speech at points and spent an unusual amount of time patting the head of a little girl next to him who was dressed like a native American for the occasion.

As McGreevey maintained his official schedule and duties, his inner ring of advisers was holed up at Drumthwacket, feverishly discussing what to do about Cipel.

Lesniak spent hours in meetings at the mansion each afternoon. He was walking alone toward the back entrance of Drumthwacket on Wednesday afternoon when the governor appeared. McGreevey ushered him into a patio chair in the garden.

"I think I'm gay," the governor told Lesniak.

"You think you're gay?" Lesniak responded.

"I am gay," McGreevey replied.

Then the two men stood up and hugged.

"You could just see the weight of the world lift off his shoulders," the senator said later.

Lesniak said he was surprised but not shocked. Like much of the political world, he had heard the rumors for years.

In 2000, the whispers had grown louder when U.S. Sen. Robert Torricelli tried to replace McGreevey as the party's standard bearer. Some in the Torricelli camp warned that McGreevey's secret sexual history would be exposed if he became governor.

As one of McGreevey's chief strategists, Lesniak spent much of that 12-day political war beating down those rumors, easing concerns among county chairmen and other political leaders. McGreevey, after all, had insisted the rumors were lies.

"I think probably the people closest to him were in the most denial," Lesniak said in retrospect. "I guess we weren't being very objective."

After the confession in the garden, McGreevey told Lesniak that he had not yet told his family of his secret.

The state senator offered to help. He called several of the first lady's friends, asking them to come to Drumthwacket that evening, saying she would need them by her side. He also lined up a counselor who could talk to the family.

Meanwhile, the advisers continued to grapple with how to handle the threat of the apparently imminent lawsuit by Cipel. Besides Lesniak, the inner circle included Fox, DeCotiis and Curtis Bashaw, executive director of the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority.

Cipel had amended his initial request, according to McGreevey counselors. He was willing to settle the dispute for less than $2 million plus a promise that the governor would help New York-based Touro College get a license for a medical school in New Jersey.

The group ordered sandwiches and worked into the evening.

"There was a tremendous amount of wrestling," Lesniak recalled. "I was convinced it was the right thing for him to resign, then I was convinced it wasn't. It was a moment of great conflict, and we were going back and forth."

He added, "I never smoked so many cigars in my life."

At one point, Lesniak ventured down into the mansion's cellar and discovered a single bottle of Ridge cabernet 1997. A member of the mansion's staff told Lesniak, an avowed wine connoisseur, that it was left over from the Whitman administration.

TELLING HIS TRUTH

The meeting broke up early in the evening with only one thing decided: The governor would declare publicly that he was gay. Whether he would resign was still unresolved. A press conference would be scheduled for the next day, last Thursday.

McGreevey left to tell his parents Veronica and Jack a former Marine drill instructor. Then he returned home to confess to his wife.

Lesniak arrived at the governor's mansion by 8 a.m. the next day. New faces had joined the group. Besides Bashaw, DeCotiis and Fox, the circle now included McGreevey's three top political advisers, Jim Margolis, Steve DeMicco and Joel Benenson; Hank Sheinkopf, a New York City public relations man who ran Lesniak's first campaign; Kevin Hagan, the chief executive officer of the Democratic State Committee and one of the governor's most trusted advisers; and Doug Hattaway, a spokesman for Al Gore's 2000 presidential campaign.

There was no quick consensus about exactly what to say at the press conference later in the day.

In the first draft of a statement, McGreevey planned to announce he would serve out his term. His advisers also wanted to stand and fight.

But shortly after 11 a.m., McGreevey asked for an honest appraisal of the political situation. He wore blue jeans and a green sweat shirt, but was businesslike in his questions.

"Eyes wide open here," he said. "What's the worst-case scenario?"

Margolis and Benenson mapped out in unsparing detail what the governor could expect. They described the likely political attacks on him and his family, the paralysis that would fall on the office and the gridlock that would engulf Trenton.

Slowly the realization set in: There was no way McGreevey could hang on for the last 17 months of his term. Around 1 p.m., the governor announced to the group: "The decision's been made."

McGreevey, while sitting on a couch in the Drumthwacket library, began dictating his speech, Lesniak said. The advisers began taking notes.

"He started talking, then we realized this was it. It was unfolding right in front of us," he said. "It came right from his heart and his soul."

With the news conference scheduled for late afternoon, staffers were frantically calling Cabinet members and others and urging them to get to the Statehouse. Health Commissioner Clifton Lacy was sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic on the New Jersey Turnpike when his cell phone rang. The caller told him to get to a TV.

About 40 minutes before the news conference, McGreevey called Corzine. He told him he planned to resign.

"You have to do what's right for your family, and mostly what's right for the state," the senator said, according to a source familiar with the conversation.

Still, Lesniak said, no one was completely sure what would happen next. McGreevey was preparing to publicly reveal his sexuality on national television, effectively ending a political career that had defined his life.

"I wasn't certain until the governor walked out there," he said.

War Without End

The global war against terror, news about the illegal invasion of Iraq, the corporate puppet presidents, the war criminal Tony Blair, September 11th 2001, the USS Liberty and New World Order crimes against humanity.

McGREEVEY SEX SCANDAL WAS ISRAELI INTELLIGENCE OPERATION