| Author | Message | | Alpha | | Posted: Thu Nov 24, 2005 9:50 am Post subject: Abramoff and the Israel connection |
| From the December 5, 2005 edition of The American
Conservative
Deep Background by Philip Giraldi
One of the more intriguing aspects of the federal
investigation into the activities of Washington
lobbyist Jack Abramoff is his Israeli connections.
His large $2.2 million bail is reported to be due to
fears that he would flee to Israel, as some of his
business associates have already done, to avoid
prosecution. Abramoff, an Orthodox Jew and ardent
Zionist, set up a charity called Capital Athletic
Foundation, which illegally provided $140,000 worth of
weapons and security equipment to hard-line Israeli
settlers. Abramoff also allegedly convinced
Congressman Robert Ney, House Administrative Committee
chairman, to award a contract worth $3 million to a
start-up Israeli telecommunications firm called Foxcom
Wireless. The contract was for the installation of
antennas in House of Representative buildings to
improve cell-phone reception. Not surprisingly, such
equipment can be designed to have what is known as a
"back door" to enable a third party, in this case
Mossad, to listen in. That an Israeli firm should be
given such a contract through a selection process that
was described as "deeply flawed and unfair" is
inexplicable, particularly as there were American
suppliers of the same equipment, and it suggests that
the private conversations of some of our congressmen
might not be so private after all. In a previous
scandal in 2001, FBI investigators strongly suspected
that two Israeli companies, AMDOCS and Comverse
Infosys, which had been allowed to obtain U.S.
government telecommunications contracts, were able to
use back-door technology to compromise the security of
the DEA, Pentagon, and White House phones.
http://www.amconmag.com/ | |  | | Alpha | | Posted: Sat Nov 26, 2005 7:44 pm Post subject: Abramoff Probe Spreads to White House, 4 Lawmakers |
| http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2005/11/26/abramoff-scandal-points-t_n_11260.html
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Abramoff Probe Spreads to White House, 4 Lawmakers
Reuters
Friday 25 November 2005
New York - The US Justice Department's probe of Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff is broader than previously thought, examining his dealings with four lawmakers, former and current congressional aides and two former Bush administration officials, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.
Prosecutors in the department's public integrity and fraud divisions are looking into Abramoff's dealings with four Republicans - former House of Representatives Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas, Rep. Bob Ney of Ohio, Rep. John Doolittle of California and Sen. Conrad Burns of Montana, the paper said, citing several people close to the investigation.
Abramoff is under investigation over his lobbying efforts for Indian tribes with casinos. He has also pleaded not guilty to federal charges in Florida that he defrauded lenders in a casino cruise line deal.
The prosecutors are also investigating at least 17 current and former congressional aides, about half of whom later took lobbying jobs with Abramoff, as well as an official from the Interior Department and another from the government's procurement office, the Journal said.
Justice Department spokesman Paul Bresson declined to comment on the investigation.
The newspaper said investigators were looking into whether Abramoff and his partners made illegal payoffs to the lawmakers and aides in the form of campaign contributions, sports tickets, meals, travel and job offers, in exchange for helping their clients.
DeLay and Ney have already retained criminal defense lawyers.
Spokespeople for the two lawmakers told the Journal that they have both hired lawyers and have not been contacted by the Justice Department.
Michael Scanlon, a former aide to DeLay and partner to powerful Republican lobbyist Abramoff, pleaded guilty to conspiracy on Monday under a deal in which he is cooperating with prosecutors probing the alleged influence-buying.
Scanlon left DeLay's office and become a partner to Abramoff, who has been indicted for fraud in a separate case in Florida. The plea agreement has been seen as a major advance in prosecutors' efforts to investigate the lobbyist. | | | | Alpha | | | | Alpha | | Posted: Sat Nov 26, 2005 10:48 pm Post subject: Report: Burns Part of Lobbyist Probe |
| Report: Burns Part of Lobbyist Probe
The Missoulian
Saturday 26 November 2005
Helena - The scope of a US Justice Department investigation of indicted Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff is wider than previously believed and now includes his dealings with US Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., the Wall Street Journal reported Friday.
The front-page story quotes anonymous sources, including lawyers and others involved in the case.
It said prosecutors in the Justice Department's public integrity and fraud divisions are looking at “possible influence-peddling" by Abramoff with congressional Republicans - former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas, Rep. Bob Ney of Ohio, Rep. John Doolittle of California and Burns.
The story quoted Burns' spokesman, J.P. Pendleton, as saying the senator's office has not yet been contacted by the Justice Department and that Burns has not retained a criminal defense attorney.
“We are more than happy to help out in any investigation should we be asked," Pendleton told the Journal.
Burns, up for re-election next year, helped one of Abramoff's tribal clients, the Saginaw Chippewa tribe in Michigan, obtain a $3 million congressional grant to build a school. Because of its Indian gambling, the tribe is one of the richest in the nation and makes annual $70,000 payments to each member.
The Montana senator has denied any wrongdoing. Burns, who headed a Senate subcommittee overseeing the grants, said he pushed for the grant to the Saginaw Chippewa tribe at the urging of Michigan's two US senators, both Democrats.
The Journal said Burns has received $150,000 in contributions from Abramoff, his lobbying partners and his clients since 2001.
In addition, the Journal reported the Justice Department is investigating at least 17 current and former congressional aides, with about half taking lobbying jobs with Abramoff, and two former Bush administration officials. Abramoff hired three Burns aides to join his lobbying firm.
Burns is seeking his fourth six-year Senate term. He faces a primary challenge from Bob Kelleher, a Butte lawyer. Democrats running are state Auditor John Morrison of Helena, former state Rep. Paul Richards of Boulder, state Senate President Jon Tester of Big Sandy and Clint Wilkes of Bozeman. | | | | Alpha | | | | Alpha | | | | Alpha | | Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2006 11:30 pm Post subject: More on Abramoff included below |
| Syrian thought experiment
Xymphora
January 17, 2006
There are apparently still a few stragglers who refuse to accept the fact that the American multi-trillion dollar mistake in Iraq was made under the influence of Israeli agents in the White House (note this uncharacteristically stupid article by Stephen Zunes, containing every straw man in the book, and coming down to the fact that we can't speak the truth now as it sounds too much like untrue anti-Semitic attacks made in the past). Of course there were many other reasons for the attack, and the politics of empire requires that many interest groups have to be serviced when such a major action is taken. No one can argue that the Israeli agents were the only reason for the attack. The Israeli agents were not a sufficient condition for the attack, but they were a necessary condition. The attack would never have occurred but for the actions of those working for Israel.
If you are still not convinced, consider the fact that the Americans are in the middle of using the United Nations and a false concern about the Hariri assassination to plot an attack against Syria (or here). Those who argue against an Israeli cause for the Iraq attack rely on other American possible reasons for wanting regime change in Iraq. What reason can the United States possibly have for attacking Syria?:
Does Syria have weapons of mass destruction? Nope.
Does Syria have a program to build weapons of mass destruction? Nope.
Does Syria have a nuclear program? Nope.
Does Syria have or plan to have nuclear weapons? Nope.
Does Syria pose any possible threat to the United States? Nope.
Does Syria have a strategically important quantity of hydrocarbons? Nope.
Does the United States need Syria as a place to build bases to control the Middle East? Nope.
Does control of Syria give the Americans any strategic benefits whatsoever? Nope.
Was Syria involved with the September 11 attack? Nope.
Is Syria connected to al Qaeda? Nope. In fact, the Syrian government is one of the biggest enemies of Islamist terrorist groups.
Did Syria try to blow up Bush's father? Nope.
All of the many reasons that the Zionists claim are the real reasons the Americans attacked Iraq simply do not apply to Syria. So why are John Bolton and the Americans well on their way to attacking Syria?
The answer is obvious. Israel. In Sharon's last interview (with the Japanese newspaper Nikkei) he was asked the question "Do you think the Golan Heights will stay under Israeli sovereignty forever?" and answered:
"I don't see any situation where Israel will not be sitting on the Golan Heights. For 19 years the northern part of Israel was under heavy war of attrition. We are not going to return to this situation, although Israel will never attack Syria."
This just repeats Sharon's position on the matter. It is an illegal position under international law, and one that is impossible to maintain unless the Syrian government is replaced by an American puppet. The post-Sharon Likud position calls for 'defensible borders', which includes permanent control of the Golan Heights. The next American war will unquestionably be fought solely for Israeli right-wing interests. Why does it continue to be so hard to accept the real necessary condition for the last American war?
The last attack is past, and the damage it caused can't be fixed, at least not by any possible present or future American government. I'm concerned about the future. Failure to acknowledge the real malign influence of Zionism over the American government is going to doom Syria - and no doubt many other Arabs in the Middle East - to the grim fate of the Iraqis. If you don't cast blame where it is due you are going to be morally responsible for the deaths which are clearly coming, all at the instance of Israel. Failure to acknowledge the truth based on some bad-faith concern about possible anti-Semitism also leaves you intellectually unable to answer some of the mysteries about American politics (it also falls into the Zionist trap of conflating an attack on Zionism with an attack on Jews, forgetting that the real power behind Zionism in the United States is Christian Zionism). Why did the Democrats support the attack on Iraq? Why do they turn down a perfect election issue and refuse - for the most part - to call for withdrawal from Iraq? Why is nobody saying anything about the upcoming holocaust against the Syrian people? There is only one answer for all these questions.
www.xymphora.blogspot.com/2006/01/syrian-thought-experiment.html
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
Cheney and Netanyahu Pushing : For War Against Syria
by Jeffrey Steinberg
This article appears in the January 20, 2006 issue of Executive Intelligence Review.
An ever-more-desperate Dick Cheney is pulling out all the stops to install "Clean Break" hawk Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu as the next Israeli Prime Minister, to push for an immediate confrontation between Israel and Syria. Israeli sources report that Cheney, as of Jan. 11, had an emissary in Israel, exploring the means to put "Bibi" and the Likud back in power, despite collapsing Israeli popular support for the extreme rightwing policies of the neo-con faction that Netanyahu represents.
Part of Cheney's growing desperation stems from the fact that the recent plea agreement between U.S. Justice Department prosecutors and super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff, threatens to bring down the entire political dirty-money empire of former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), which has been Cheney's principal power base since coming in as Vice President and de facto head-of-state in January 2001. Cheney and DeLay were shown by a recent EIR exclusive story to be politically "joined at the hip" (see EIR, Dec. 30, 2005). The Vice President is so deeply implicated in the DeLay/Abramoff dirty-money machine that the legal defense funds of DeLay and Cheney's ex-chief of staff Lewis Libby are headed by the same two Republican lobbyists, Wayne Berman and former Congressman Bill Paxon (R-N.Y.).
But Israeli sources report, and Washington insiders confirm, that Netanyahu himself is so closely tied to Jack Abramoff that the fallout from Abramoff's plea may bring him down as well, as the international web of money-laundering fronts, tax-exempt charities, and no-bid contractors put together by Abramoff unravels under U.S. prosecutors' scrutiny.
West Bank Story
The first published clue about the Netanyahu/Abramoff links actually surfaced last year, when Newsweek reporter Michael Isikoff revealed on May 2, 2005 that one of Abramoff's tax-exempt charities, Capital Athletic Foundation, had funnelled $140,000 to a West Bank settlement, to finance the purchasing of security equipment, including "camouflage suits, sniper scopes, night-vision binoculars, a thermal imager, and other material."
Funds for the Capital Athletic Foundation, ostensibly an Abramoff family charity dedicated to helping inner-city youth, came largely from Indian tribe clients of Abramoff.
The security gear was provided to the West Bank town of Beitar Illit, which Isikoff described as "a sprawling ultra-Orthodox outpost whose residents have occasionally tangled with their Palestinian neighbors."
Beitar Illit is the home of Schmuel Ben-Zvi, a rightwing American who moved to the West Bank, and who was a close high school pal of Abramoff in Hollywood. The $140,000 was paid to an Israeli group called Kollel Ohel Tiferet, which is not publicly registered in Israel.
While Ben-Zvi denied any links to the $140,000 West Bank payoff, an exchange of emails between him and Abramoff told a different story. On receiving the money, Ben-Zvi wrote to Abramoff: "I feel like the tank commanders in the Yom Kippur war, who when hearing over the radio that reinforcements were coming, felt so great that they raised their seats higher out of the tank hatch and went forward." To which Abramoff wrote back: "If only there were another dozen of you the dirty rats would be finished," referring to the Palestinian neighbors of Beitar Illit.
When questions arose over what Israeli entity to pass the money to, Ben-Zvi proposed to write a letter to the Capital Athletic Foundation, on the letterhead of his Snipers Workshop, which he described as "an educational entity of sorts."
Informed of the West Bank funding, Indian tribal lawyer Henry Buffalo told Newsweek, "This is almost like outer-limits bizarre. The tribe would never have given money for this."
FBI sources told Newsweek's Isikoff that the bulk of the $4 million listed as the Abramoff fund's tax-exempt gifts went to a now-defunct Maryland yeshiva where Abramoff's two sons went to school.
Wiring Congress
Another contributor to the Capital Athletic Foundation was an Israeli telecom startup company, Foxcom, which kicked in $50,000 to the Abramoff fund. Foxcom received a $3-million contract to install wireless antenna systems at the U.S. Congress, in a deal pushed through by Abramoff crony Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio), chairman of the House Administration Committee. The Washington Post revealed on Oct. 18, 2005 that Foxcom had paid Abramoff $280,000 in lobbying fees around the time they got the Congressional contract. An American company, LGC Wireless, which had lost the bid to Foxcom, went to the FBI and charged that the bidding process had been rigged by Ney.
Newsweek reported on Aug. 22, 2005 that U.S. officials had rushed to indict and arrest Abramoff on Aug. 11, because they feared he would flee to Israel, as two of his business partners had already done.
And still to be unravelled are the Abramoff connections to the Russian oil company Naftasib, which laundered $1 million to another Abramoff "charity," the U.S. Family Network, through a London law firm, James and Sarch, in 1998. Two top Naftasib executives, Marina Nevskaya and Alexander Koulakovsky, spent "quality time" with Tom DeLay in Moscow, shortly before the laundered payoff to Abramoff. The Russian "oil company" lists the Russian Ministry of Defense and Ministry of Interior as Naftasib's two main clients. Some of the military equipment delivered to the West Bank settlement of Ben-Zvi came from Russia, hinting at Russian Mafiya ties in the background of the Abramoff saga.
Senior Washington sources have cautioned that it would be a mistake to presume that the Abramoff money flow to Israel and Russia primarily went out of the United States. Abramoff's takeover of the gambling cruise ship line SunCruz gave him a perfect instrument for laundering millions of dollars a day through the offshore gambling tables.
Syria War Diversion
The Cheney push to install Netanyahu as Israel's next Prime Minister, replacing the now-incapacitated Ariel Sharon, is, according to Israeli sources, part of Cheney's desperate move to "change the subject" from his growing political problems in Washington.
Netanyahu is pledged, according to the Israeli sources, to a war with Syria, to divert attention, and to move ahead with the decade-old "Clean Break" scheme, drafted for Netanyahu in July 1996 by a group of American neo-con allies of Cheney. The "Clean Break" strategy paper was co-authored by Richard Perle, David Wurmser, Douglas Feith, and others, and called for the overthrow of the Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq, followed by similar "regime changes" in Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt. David Wurmser, the single most vociferous advocate of "regime change" in Damascus, is now a senior Middle East policy aide to Cheney. He previously served under Doug Feith at the Pentagon, when Feith was Undersecretary of Defense for Policy in the first Bush-Cheney Administration.
Cheney's war scheme against Syria also implicates Abramoff, according to a Jan. 11, 2006 story by Justin Raimondi, posted on antiwar.com. "One investigator, eager to obtain information about the neo-con-sponsored Reform Party of Syria, led by one Farid Ghadry, the Syrian version of Ahmed Chalabi" Raimondi wrote, "stumbled on the Abramoff connection: 'When repeated calls to [Ghadry's] organization went unanswered, I visited the Washington, D.C. headquarters of the RPS. Reform Party of Syria is in the office of super-Zionist lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Middle Gate Ventures, Abramoff's political advisory company, partners with RPS."
http://www.larouchepub.com/other/2006/3303cheney_bibi.html
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