http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2346437Abramoff Plea May Mask a Larger Crime: GOP Foreign Influence Peddling
It appears that a plea agreement has been reached between the Bush Justice Department and attorneys representing GOP fundraiser Jack Abramoff. This reportedly promises to implicate some 20 Congressmen in a elaborate scheme to funnel slush fund money syphoned from Indian tribes to favored lawmakers. However, there is another side to the Abramoff influence-peddling operation that the Indian tribes lobbying fraud probe does not touch, and which major papers, such as The Washington Post, have virtually ignored.
That is the money that Abramoff and fellow GOP fixer, Grover Norquist,have syphoned from Islamic banks and groups known to have financial ties to terrorist organizations, including al-Qaeda. This is the bigger crime of illegal foreign influence over the Bush Administration and GOP lawmakers that FBI whistleblower Sybil Edmonds has tried to expose despite a federal gag order based in the rarely invoked State Secrets exemption.
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/03/31/161... ;
http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0714/dailyUpdate.htmlUnless Democrats and other concerned Americans raise their voices and call for a full inquiry into illegal foreign influence over the US political process and elections, the details of this story just are not going to be made public. We should oppose any plea agreement in the Abramoff case that does not put foreign money into the spotlight.
On that point, there was a very significant piece of background information in yesterday's Raw Story report, which notes that the Greenberg Traurig (GT) law firm, which hosted Abramoff's lobbying shop, was previously convicted of knowingly accepting illegal foreign campaign contributions. A German paid the largest fine to date for that offense after a foreign-source contribution went through a GT lobbyist. Under Federal Election Commission laws, foreign individuals and companies are barred from contributing to American political campaigns and parties.
http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Firm_knew_of_Abramoffs_re...This raises a question: are we ever going to hear more about how Jack Abramoff and Grover Norquist funneled money to the GOP from Islamic banks and fees from groups tied to terrorist finance? See,
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/1/2/15814/29480According to reports published in The Hill, a respected Washington political newsletter, Jack Abramoff and Grover Norquist continued to lobby after 9/11 on behalf of Islamic banks and groups that had been accused of financing terrorist groups. We must now ask, is that side of the Republican influence-peddling scheme ever going to be revealed in court documents, or is this going to get buried as part of Jack's plea agreement with the Bush Justice Department? See, www.dailykos.com/story/2005/10/17/122311/72 ; www.dailykos.com/story/2005/12/13/91057/126
Rawstory ran an article yesterday reporting that the law firm was aware of his unlawful practices months before The Washington Post first reported on them in 2004. Greenberg Traurig claims it had no knowledge of Abramoff's wrongdoing until it was revealed in The Post. According to RawStory:
Before he was a pariah, Abramoff was Greenberg Traurig's poster boy.
SNIP
With Abramoff, Greenberg Traurig did even better than they had hoped. The firm's lobbying receipts leapt fourfold, from $3 million in 2000, to $16 million in 2001. At the peak in 2003, the firm grossed $26 million on lobbying alone.
The scandal hounding Abramoff isn't the first the firm has faced. In 1998, the Federal Election Commission levied a $77,000 fine against Greenberg for knowing soliciting illegal contributions from foreign national. The fine given the German developer in the case, $323,000, was the largest of its kind ever assessed by the FEC.
Reporting in national media, including The Washington Post which has been covering the Abramoff story closely, have virtually ignored foreign sources of fees and funding collected by Abramoff and his various shell companies, money which if it were commingled with Jack's political contributions to the Republican Party would be a violation of federal law.
According to SourceWatch, GT has been involved in other political fundraising and election scandals:
http://www.sourcewatch.org /...
Bush-Greenberg Traurig Connections
The following enumerations were published (
http://portland.indymedia.org /...) in September 2004 by, among others, the Portland Indymedia. Some sources have been provided in support.
1. "Represented President George W. Bush in the Bush-Gore 2000 Florida election vote recount."
"Court's reputation being tested," (
http://quest.cjonline.com /...) Associated Press (cjonline.com), December 11, 2000: "Barry Richard, a partner in the firm, is the lead Bush attorney in Florida. Richard, who is a Democrat, said he was called Nov. 8 about representing Bush." re Barry S. Richard
"Ethics experts say Scalia, Thomas connections not conflicts of interest," (
http://archives.cnn.com /...) CNN, December 12, 2000: See "Justice Scalia's sons": "Another Bush lawyer, Barry S. Richard, is a partner in that firm's Tallahassee office."
"Florida Attorneys for Bush and Gore to Debate 2000 Presidential Election Recount," (
http://clasnews.clas.ufl.edu /...) University of Florida, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, March 25, 2003: "Barry Richard, chief Florida attorney for Bush ... an attorney of Greenberg Traurig law firm in Tallahassee,..."
"Greenberg Traurig Instrumental in Florida Vote Recount Victory," (
http://www.gtlaw.com /...) GTLaw.com, January 13, 2004.
2. "Personally represents Florida Governor Jeb Bush."
"Governor Bush Appoints Raquel A. Rodriguez to Serve As General Counsel," (
http://sun6.dms.state.fl.us /...) My Florida, November 25, 2002. re Raquel A. Rodriguez
"Gov. Bush names Greenberg Traurig lawyer general counsel," (
http://www.bizjournals.com /...) South Florida BizJournal, November 25, 2002.
"Hayden Dempsey Joins Greenberg Traurig LLP," (
http://www.gtlaw.com /...) GTlaw.com, December 23, 2003. re Hayden R. Dempsey
Profile: Hayden R. Dempsey (
http://www.rnla.org /...), Republican National Lawyers Association.
Profile: Justin Sayfie (
http://www.pmbconsulting.com /...), Poole McKinley & Blosser website. re Justin J. Sayfie.
Bush Donor Profile: Justin J. Sayfie: here (
http://www.tpj.org /...) and here (
http://www.whitehouseforsale.org /...), Texans for Public Justice.
3. "Hired son of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia on election day 2000--after which Justice Scalia cast one of the 5 to 4 deciding votes which placed Bush in presidency." re John F. Scalia
"Court's reputation being tested," (
http://quest.cjonline.com /...) Associated Press (cjonline.com), December 11, 2000: "John Scalia accepted a position with the Miami-based firm Greenberg Traurig on Nov. 7, election day."
"Ethics experts say Scalia, Thomas connections not conflicts of interest," (
http://archives.cnn.com /...) CNN, December 12, 2000. See "Justice Scalia's sons": "John Scalia, 35, has accepted a job offer with the Washington office of Greenberg Traurig. Another Bush lawyer, Barry S. Richard, is a partner in that firm's Tallahassee office. ... John Scalia won't actually join the Greenberg, Traurig firm until sometime next year, according to partner Joe Reeder, who said the job was offered weeks before the election and has no connection to the Florida case."
"Attorney John Scalia Joins Greenberg Traurig LLP's Tysons Corner Office," (
http://www.gtlaw.com /...) GTLaw.com, January 10, 2001; Scalia's GTLaw profile (
http://www.gtlaw.com /...).
4. "Miami-headquartered firm partially funded/sponsored delegation to Israel by House-Senate Armed Services Committee members and government contractors to witnes and be briefed on interrogation resistance procedures and torture techniques ... One of lobbyists joining them to Israel included Jack London, CEO, CACI International, the American defense contractor implicated by Major General Antonio M. Taguba in outsourced Iraqi torture at Abu Ghraib prison." See Taguba Report.
Ali Abunimah, "Israeli link possible in US torture techniques. In exchange for interrogation training, did Washington award security contracts?" (
http://www.dailystar.com.lb /...) The Daily Star (Lebanon), May 11, 2004. Also posted May 18, 2004 by San Francisco Indymedia (
http://sf.indymedia.org /...).
Tom Flocco, "Gonzalez confirmation hearing ignored US / Jordan torture links and legislative junket to Israel to witness 'anti-terror' exercises," (
http://911citizenswatch.org /...) 911citizenswatch.org, January 7, 2005.
5. "Firm has prominent administrative positions in Massachusetts 9/11 Fund which also involves Bush family banking house Brown Brothers Harriman."
"$500,000 DONATION LAUNCHES MASSACHUSETTS 9/11 FUND. Stop & Shop and Greenberg Traurig LLP Launch Fund Supported by Victims' Families," (
http://www.gtlaw.com /...) GTLaw.org, January 2002.
Yahoo! Search results (
http://search.yahoo.com /...), December 20, 2005.
6. "One appointed as General Counsel of the Department of the Navy and its Office of Naval Intelligence just 90 days before the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon."
"Alberto J. Mora, General Counsel of the Department of the Navy (
http://www.chinfo.navy.mil /...), "the 20th General Counsel of the Department of the Navy, was sworn into office on July 25, 2001."
7. "Firm works with 9-11 victims on planning out their U.S. gov't hushmail/bribery estates."
"As The Revolving Door Turns. How does Washington work these days? A telling tale of two Capitol Hill staffers," (
http://www.businessweek.com /...) Business Week, July 11, 2005: "On the Hill, both Rudy and Shiffman were involved in issues that were creating a new and lucrative lobbying niche for Greenberg Traurig and others: claims brought by victims of war, terror, and torture against foreign governments and companies. In these cases, U.S. cooperation was key, either in pressing the POWs' case against Japanese companies or in unblocking foreign assets frozen by the U.S. Treasury."
8. "Firm partner is Marvin S. Rosen, Democratic National Committee (DNC) Finance Chairman who supervised activities of convicted fund-raiser and DNC vice-chairman of finance John Huang who had to return half of $3 million+ raised by him because of contributions from illegal foreign sources.
Profile: Marvin S. Rosen (
http://www.gtlaw.com /...), GTLaw.com website.
9. Bush still owes Greenberg firm nearly one million dollars for work done by dozens of lawyers and paralegals--leaving some to question why a Republican candidate would hire a Democratic lawyer from a Democratic firm ...
"Bush Florida 2000 recount committee still owes lobbyist's former firm $314k. White House directs queries to RNC," (
http://rawstory.com /...) The Raw Story, May 5, 2005:
"Greenberg Traurig has yet to receive more than $314,000 in legal fees charged to a Bush committee during the 2000 Florida recount ... As a corporation, Greenberg's unpaid tab represents a massive in-kind campaign contribution, far larger than anything that went unreported by DeLay. But it appears to be legal: corporations are allowed to donate any amount to the nebulous type of committee employed during the recount. It would, however, violate the committee's self-imposed $5,000 contribution limit from individual donors. ... Greenberg's leadership has apparently declined to press the issue. Jill Perry, Greenberg's director of marketing and public affairs, declined to comment," according to (
http://rawstory.com /...) The Raw Story's John Byrne, May 5, 2005.
There is evidence that Jack Abramoff and the Greenberg Traurig firm have served as a conduit for illegal foreign influence-peddling that must be investigated and prosecuted. Readers are urged to contact the media and their representatives to oppose any plea agreement that closes off that line of inquiry.
Copyright, 2005. Mark G. Levey
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