Could this info on Ney point to surveillance of congress?

[mod mom]

Ney approved a 2002 license for an Israeli telecommunications company to install antennas for the House. The company later paid Abramoff $280,000 for lobbying. It also donated $50,000 to a charity that Abramoff sometimes used to secretly pay for some of his lobbying activities.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/17/AR2005101701918_pf.html

Pelosi Calls for Investigation into Ney Dealings with Wireless Firm
By Josephine Hearn
House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) yesterday called for an investigation into how the House Administration Committee, led by Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio), decided to award a lucrative 2002 licensing agreement to a company with ties to Jack Abramoff, a lobbyist who is now the subject of multiple criminal probes.

Writing yesterday to House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), Pelosi sought the Speaker's backing in a request to the acting inspector general of the House to review how the company, Foxcom Wireless, obtained the agreement, which allowed it to install equipment to improve cell phone reception in the Capitol and adjacent House office buildings.

"I am writing to ask that we join together in a bipartisan request to the Acting Inspector General of the House to conduct an immediate and thorough inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the selection by the House of Representatives of Foxcom Wireless," Pelosi wrote.

She referenced a recent report in The Washington Post that suggested that Ney's office rigged the informal bidding process to favor Foxcom.

<snip>

http://www.hillnews.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/102005/pelosinew.html

Helped another Abramoff client win a government contract. The House Administration Committee, from which Ney resigned his chairmanship in January 2006 due to the Abramoff scandal, steered a $3 million contract to Abramoff client Foxcom (now MobileAccess) in 2002 to install cellular phone antennas in House offices. Foxcom had donated $50,000 to Abramoff’s Capital Athletic Foundation in 2001 and proceeded to pay Abramoff’s lobbying firm $280,000 over the two years following the award of the contract. An executive of LGC, the firm that had advised the House on wireless infrastructure until the new contract was issued, complained to Ney that Foxcom’s selection was “essentially a ‘back room’ deal.” The senior network systems engineer for the House said the award of the contract to Foxcom left him “really surprised, given all the work we put in with LGC in designing the system.” A spokesman for Ney claimed that wireless providers had voted for Foxcom in secret ballots, but spokesmen for each of the six wireless companies told the Washington Post they had remained neutral in the selection process. Ney refused to make public a copy of documents relating to the agreement. Charging documents against Abramoff allege that the “official acts” Ney performed in exchange for favors received from Abramoff included “advancing the application of a client of defendant Abramoff for a license to install wireless telephone infrastructure in the House of Representatives.”

http://www.cleanupwashington.org/hos/page.cfm?pageid=31


*****
Also, isn't it ironic that one of the authors of HAVA has questionable precedures in wireless provider voting:

” A spokesman for Ney claimed that wireless providers had voted for Foxcom in secret ballots, but spokesmen for each of the six wireless companies told the Washington Post they had remained neutral in the selection process.

[Independent_Liberal]

1. I feel like popcorn!

:popcorn:

[mod mom]

2. OK what am I missing? Surely there can't be Ney apologists here on DU.

I posted earlier on Ney on another thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=1314140&mesg_id=1314438

and decided to do a little research and found the articles I posted here. Since Ney was one of the architects of HAVA I found it ironic that he would be accused of rigging a vote in favor of one provider over another.

Clue me in.

[Independent_Liberal]

3. I just said I feel like popcorn because it's another Ney scandal brewing.

I just can't help but get excited when this info comes out.